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High school student Johnny Grissom (Anthony De La Torre) is a bit of a
loose cannon, always getting into fights, never accepting authority, and
having problems containing his temper. This is a situation not only
dangerous to him and his opponents but even his close friends ... like
when he almost drives his girlfriend Karen (Aprilann) and best friends
Eric (Byron Brown II) and Gary (Chris Modrzynski) off a bridge to their
certain deaths. Something snaps with Gary there, he gets into a fight with
Johnny, and ultimately kills him ... in something that could be described
as self defense. Eric and Karen are shocked, but ultimately Gary convinces
them to not report it to the police but make it look like Johnny has died
in an accident. Fortunately, they make this "accident"
believable enough, and nobody at all suspects them - so life can go on as
it had before ... safe for the fact that Johnny's soul is restless and
wants revenge, so he reclaims his decaying body and goes against all of
those who have wronged him in his young life, like his school's main jock
(Travis Torlone), who was never slow to bully him, his abusive dad
(Michael DeLorenzo), Gary of course and even Karen, who was a bit too
quick to become an item with Gary after Johnny's death. Gradually Eric
grows worried of course, especially since he thinks he has seen Johnny a
couple of times after his death, but of course, nobody believes him,
nobody but his own teacher Carol (Kim Piazza), who's obviously also on
Johnny's kill list, but who has managed to fight him off - so far ...
Now it would be a gross exaggeration to say that Johnny
Gruesome in any way or form re-invents the slasher genre - but it's an
extremely solid example of its species all the same, deeply rooted in the
genre's 80s origins without being derivative or filled with post-modern
irony. Instead the movie tells its story in a pleasently straightforward
way, based on tension and suspence, placing all the shocks right, using
gruesome effects in all the right places without drowning the film in
gore, and even including some lighter moments to loosen up things a bit.
And a strong cast really helps bringing this movie to life. In essence,
good genre fun!
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