Class of Nuke 'Em High Review

Movie: Class of Nuke 'Em High
By: Kries Tyfus
Date: May 17, 2011

Not really your typical American high school movie

I've seen quite a number of Troma productions and I've seen Class of Nuke 'Em High a long time ago. Just to make sure to give you guys a decent look at this Troma classic, which I haven't seen for a long while, I decided to grab this one from dusty shelves and put it my old VCR for reconsideration. I’m very proud to have a movie like Class of Nuke ‘Em High, in original state, on good old VHS.

Class of Nuke ‘Em High is very much be called a b-movie production brought to you by Troma Entertainment. As we have learned from the many years that have passed, Troma Entertainment is a company that doesn’t take its products, quite often, all too serious. Anyway, this movie is about an American high school next to a nuclear power plant. Things starting to get messed up when the plant workers discover a leak and it’s heading down to the school next door, but they don’t want to get any trouble so they keep it quiet.

The first victim is Dewey. He’s your typical grade A-student. Loved by teachers, hated by fellow classmates. He drinks some water from the tap down in the hallway before going to class, but little does he know. The water is infected by the power plant already and he starts acting weird a few minutes after. His body starts to shake in a way Shakin’ Stevens would be proud of and then tries to strangle a fellow student who’s standing in front of him. Then he’s going berserk and jumps right through the window for no reason whatsoever and dies. This controversial scene is well-known by many b-horror fanatics. Even to those who haven’t seen the movie.

Then there’s the Cretins. A group of kids who used to be grade A-students as well, but transformed into lower-class anti-social punks because of what happened down at the power plant. They’re definitely no folks to mess around with. They trash things and beat up kids just for the fun of it, while pushing other schoolmates to buy some of their weed they like to call ‘Atomic High’ or otherwise they get beaten up. They get their weed from a plant worker who has a little stash of his own growing at the plant’s private territory. And yeah, take a wild guess.. the weed is actually radioactive marijuana.

The movie also follows two lovebirds, going by the name of Warren and Chrissy. They’re not an official couple yet, but they’ll do anything to impress each other to make it work. One of Warren’s friends is having a beach party and both Warren and Chrissy are invited. Under the cloak of having a good time, the two lovebirds smoke a joint that is bought from the Cretins the day before. Suddenly Chrissy is getting a bit horny (that’s some pretty good weed, I’d say) and Warren knows exactly what to do. A man’s got to do, what a man’s got to do. So they’re starting to make out. Making sweet love. Eat your heart out, Barry White. When Warren and Chrissy are back home again, they both start hallucinating and they’re not feeling so well all of a sudden. Time has passed since they’ve made out and Chrissy is actually pregnant and gets a miscarriage. Warren shall get his revenge.

Like I said earlier, Class of Nuke ‘Em High is high likely a b-movie product by Troma Entertainment. A company that doesn’t take its products very serious. So it’s probably not a great movie to everyone and will be praised by a certain type of b-movie fanatics only, like myself. It has some gorey moments, but not in an extreme way. Although, the level of violence you’ll get to see is in most cases very brutal. It comes along with a number of laughs and chuckles too. This is the ultimate party movie when you’re having your friends over for a few beers. And it may look like as if the movie didn’t even cost a dime and you wish the actors had some more acting lessons, but you have to take that for granted. This movie didn’t get a cult-status for nothing. One hell of a masterpiece!