Review of Malibu High

Bitchy, surly, calculating high school senior Kim Bentley (a marvelously venomous performance by tasty hot brunette Jill Lansing) ain't having a good time of it. She's been dumped by her jerky boyfriend Kevin (stolid Stuart Taylor), lives with her shrewish, overbearing mother (shrill Phyllis Benson), is still traumatized by the suicide death of her father, and is flunking all of her classes. Kim immediately starts to improve her miserable lot in life by seducing all of her male teachers and earning extra cash by servicing numerous guys in back of a van for scuzzy no-count pimp Tony (a nicely slimy Alex Mann). Things get even better for the seriously ruthless and amoral sociopath Kim when she leaves Tony and hooks up with smooth crime kingpin Lance (the ingratiating Garth Howard). Next thing you know Kim is bumping off folks for Lance as a deadly assassin (!). Crudely directed by Irvin Berwick (who also gave us the wonderfully wretched psycho riot "Hitch Hike to Hell"), with a spectacularly lurid, sordid and torrid melodramatic script by John Buckley and Tom Singer, rough, grainy cinematography by William De Diego, plenty of scrumptious gratuitous female nudity, ragged editing, a hilariously horrendous stock film library score (the "People's Court" theme plays in its entirety during a lengthy chase sequence!), terrible acting from a game no-name cast, a tacky theme song, a sizable smattering of leering soft-core sex, crummy dialogue, a mean, hard, sleazy tone, and one dilly of a surprise bummer ending, this gloriously gaga over-the-top schlock mini-epic makes for a whole lot of entertainingly trashy fun. One especially great scene has Kim give elderly high school principal Mr. Elmhurst (doddery John Harmon) a fatal massive heart attack by exposing her breasts in front of him. A simply astonishing disco dance party set piece rates as another uproariously campy highlight. A shamefully overlooked and under-appreciated exploitation crime drama gem.