This was one hell of a reunion! What is supposed to be a celebration for a dying teacher turns out to be far more sinister, bloody, violent, and painful. A group of adults return to reunite with their school teacher and we discover that each member of her class have grown with boulder-sized chips on their shoulders, their lives deeply effected by her mistreatment of them. The teacher's husband hung himself after she gave birth to a male child with a hideously deformed face. Keeping him in her basement, several of the school kids(..appropriately those gathered at the reunion)often mock him, while one younger boy is kind to him..the film sets up that this particular child(..who was actually criticized by the teacher for talking to her son!)is perhaps the young adult who begins sadistically attacking the characters of the reunion, one by one, surprising them when they are preoccupied, finishing them off in the basement where the deformed kid was kept away from the outside world. The film shows the deteriorating mindset of those who have gathered with their teacher, their emotional outbursts, confronting her on how she has misshapen their lives for the worse. Shortly afterward, however, most of them meet a grisly fate.
I will say that BLOODY REUNION isn't your typical slasher..this is a film with something to say. It is chock full with anger, pint-up animosity, buried hostility that is surfacing(..and had built over the years), and the reunion provides an opportunity to aggressively seek answers for the torment that has lingered due to the improper upbringing by a teacher who was supposed to nurture her students, not belittle and criticize them. The film has a whopper of a twist which many might compare loosely to HIGH TENSION, but BLOODY REUNION does it in a very effective way that works rather well and isn't riddled with plot holes. Almost completely told from the point of view of Jung-won(Seong-won Jang), sadly slumped over the bedside of her mentor, to a detective attempting to piece together the sequence of events that led to the slaughter, the school teacher's indictment is brought to light over the course of the film. It is far from a pretty picture. The teacher is made to look as if she held a disregard for the poor, often ridiculed those with weaknesses(..one's nonathletic ability, another's weight issues), and even possibly molested her attractive male student(..which has turned him into a pill-popping wreck). At a very sickly state where she's confined to a wheel chair and can not control her bowels, the teacher is at her most vulnerable and weakest. Her punishment, the bad karma which is returning the favor, should be enough, but these former students, fueled by years of self-loathing, social rejects with buried contempt for the very one they sought approval(..always wanting to please her), have a chance to unleash the vitriolic rage held inside for far too long. The violence can get pretty unsettling as one is a victim of a vicious razor blade attack(..after bound to a chair, he's fed broken razors and water to wash them down!), one's eyelids are stapled, another is pummeled with a bat(..before the final crushing blows, we watch as ants enter his orifices and bleeding wounds..yuck!), with eyes gouged, and a neck stabbed, blood squirting from the hole. The teacher's life is threatened multiple times when students approach her with violent intent, but each time she is spared in the nick of time. The very fact that they have such hate for her and are dying so horribly is enough punishment..because she realizes that she's the real mastermind behind everything.
Now, I will not reveal the twist, but before the bellyachers lay claim that it makes the film a waste of time..I beg to differ. The teacher is still responsible for those under her care, and their obligations to those under her is of great importance. The mentor and role model, the teacher can shape minds, and motivate her students to be the best they can be. It can work both ways, and even if what we witness may not totally be accurate, the same negative feelings still exist and the behavior of an adult towards a student she has distaste for can ultimately bring about such dire consequences. This is a slasher with a potent punch. Care given to the characters and the twist isn't something merely thrown in there to foil the viewer, but comes from a dark place. Slasher fans definitely should give this one a shot..it's a winner.
I will say that BLOODY REUNION isn't your typical slasher..this is a film with something to say. It is chock full with anger, pint-up animosity, buried hostility that is surfacing(..and had built over the years), and the reunion provides an opportunity to aggressively seek answers for the torment that has lingered due to the improper upbringing by a teacher who was supposed to nurture her students, not belittle and criticize them. The film has a whopper of a twist which many might compare loosely to HIGH TENSION, but BLOODY REUNION does it in a very effective way that works rather well and isn't riddled with plot holes. Almost completely told from the point of view of Jung-won(Seong-won Jang), sadly slumped over the bedside of her mentor, to a detective attempting to piece together the sequence of events that led to the slaughter, the school teacher's indictment is brought to light over the course of the film. It is far from a pretty picture. The teacher is made to look as if she held a disregard for the poor, often ridiculed those with weaknesses(..one's nonathletic ability, another's weight issues), and even possibly molested her attractive male student(..which has turned him into a pill-popping wreck). At a very sickly state where she's confined to a wheel chair and can not control her bowels, the teacher is at her most vulnerable and weakest. Her punishment, the bad karma which is returning the favor, should be enough, but these former students, fueled by years of self-loathing, social rejects with buried contempt for the very one they sought approval(..always wanting to please her), have a chance to unleash the vitriolic rage held inside for far too long. The violence can get pretty unsettling as one is a victim of a vicious razor blade attack(..after bound to a chair, he's fed broken razors and water to wash them down!), one's eyelids are stapled, another is pummeled with a bat(..before the final crushing blows, we watch as ants enter his orifices and bleeding wounds..yuck!), with eyes gouged, and a neck stabbed, blood squirting from the hole. The teacher's life is threatened multiple times when students approach her with violent intent, but each time she is spared in the nick of time. The very fact that they have such hate for her and are dying so horribly is enough punishment..because she realizes that she's the real mastermind behind everything.
Now, I will not reveal the twist, but before the bellyachers lay claim that it makes the film a waste of time..I beg to differ. The teacher is still responsible for those under her care, and their obligations to those under her is of great importance. The mentor and role model, the teacher can shape minds, and motivate her students to be the best they can be. It can work both ways, and even if what we witness may not totally be accurate, the same negative feelings still exist and the behavior of an adult towards a student she has distaste for can ultimately bring about such dire consequences. This is a slasher with a potent punch. Care given to the characters and the twist isn't something merely thrown in there to foil the viewer, but comes from a dark place. Slasher fans definitely should give this one a shot..it's a winner.