10 Best High School Horror Movies

Some say your high (or secondary for all us Brits) school years are your best. Others say they're soul-destroying. Those hormonally-enhanced days of lessons, social hierarchies and house parties are a perfect fit for the angry, unpredictable world of horror cinema.

A diverse crowd of masterful creepfests have been set on campus. Freaks, geeks, jocks, cheerleaders and every other stereotype wind up with something in common: victimhood. Seriously, what is up with slashers and their obsession with terminating young adults? Sadly the savagery doesn't cease at masked melee combatants; ill-fated adolescents have fallen prey to supernatural scares-a-plenty too.

All the blood, guts and gore make those pesky exams look like a walk in the park. Falling in and out of favour with audiences each decade, the high school setting remains one of horror's most well known and satirised. Bursting with frivolous tropes (car won't start, tripping over in the midst of a chase etc), the often campy classroom thrills are some times scary but always good fun.

Influential, insane and slightly inane, filmmakers have been letting their imaginations run wild here for decades.

A (very) loose remake of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, The Faculty arrived in cinemas soon after the release of Scream. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson was the mastermind behind both films, a key figure in the renewed popularity of high school horror during the late 90s.

Throwing its own distinctive twist on the alien invasion concept, The Faculty is reminiscent of The Breakfast Club in its approach to the teenaged characters. We have figures who (on the surface) match your typical stereotypes: the good-looking mean girl (Jordana Brewster), the cool rebel (Josh Hartnett), the mistreated geek (Elijah Wood), the jock (Shawn Hatosy) and the goth (Clea DuVall). Much like The Breakfast Club, however, these characters prove to be far more three-dimensional and human before the end credits roll.

It's the dedication to keep each character's developmental arc consistent through the film that lends this gross-out chiller some charm. With witty dialogue and respectable effects, the film provides thrills, laughs and adolescent angst in good measure. Messy but fun, the homage-laden cult favourite served as a fun love letter to prior sci fi/horror flicks. It also captured 90s teens better than many of its peers.