Writer/producer/director Joshua Kennedy's latest Gooey Film Production is a sublime salute to H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
In addition to using the yarn's structure, The Innsmouth School for Girls references Satan's School for Girls, A Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory, Blood of Dracula, The Initiation of Sarah, Carrie, Wednesday and even the college-girl spurred City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel). In other words, it's filled with young ladies, as well as truth-or-dare giggles and ample, nightmarish chills, creating the type of diverse entertainment we've come to expect from Kennedy.
The movie opens with lovely Roberta Olmstead (get it?), played by talented newcomer, Hilda Sofia Bautista, heading to the eponymous institution via a chauffeured van and sharing a reflective narrative in the Victoria Winters/Dark Shadows vein. This establishes the dread that enshrouds the institution (not to mention, the entire town), even if the exact emanation is difficult to pinpoint...at first.
The strangeness then deepens, unfolding notch by notch, ushered by Innsmouth's no-nonsense dean, Barnabas Marsh, played by Kennedy, who emits a robust voice and wears a Barnabas Collins ring. One might sense that his physicality isn't quite right, even as he lurks in the distant shadows, for it appears he's just a tad too fishy around the lips and eyes.
The student body is led by callous Suzi Banion (Stephanie Jo Saenez), though even she can't deny the school's imbalanced vibrations. When a teacher is reported missing, the discomfort worsens, leaving Roberta and her only two friends, Lori (Mitzi Venus) and her brother, Andrew (Jonathan Tamaz), to travel Innsmouth's dank crevasses, where scaly insinuations emerge. It thereafter becomes apparent that the town is infected by something beyond this earth, and a legacy of missing females only seals the deal, but how in the world do the youngsters stop the uncanny invasion, even if derisive Suzi does join the cause?
The plot moves along nicely, and Reber Clark's score gives the events a saturating, Bob Cobert feel. That feel invokes the conciliating quality of classic, Gothic horror, with Cthulhu and R'lyeh references enforcing the aura, as well as the recurring appearance of Bryan Martinez's Greek-chorus wayfarer: a pelagic equivalent to Friday the 13th's Crazy Ralph, but with a distinct, Dan Curtis flavor.
The Innsmouth's School for Girls can be purchased for streaming on Amazon Prime, in addition to DVD through oldies.com. The disc includes outtakes, a deleted scene, a making-of documentary and audio commentary by Kennedy:
https://www.oldies.com/product-view/1186D.html
The Innsmouth School for Girls is a wise investment for Lovecraft completists and of course, all Kennedy connoisseurs.
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