High School Hellcats
                                                                                                                      
Director: Edward Bernds
Year: 1958
Rating: 5.5
At the end of the 1950s, there was an explosion in films marketed to teenagers and about teenagers. Rock and roll, hot rods, low-budget horror and sci-fi and juvenile delinquent films made for fine B double features. One of the leading studios to exploit this trend was AIP. They were behind such classics as Hot Rod Girl, Dragstrip Girl, Reform School Girl, Dragstrip Riot, Hot Rod Gang, Diary of a Highschool Bride, I was a Teenage Werewolf and this film. Made cheap and fast. Great for drive-in dates in the privacy of your car.



It is an all-girl's high school and it is run by the Hellcats, a club with two sociopaths in charge. Nastier than a horde of wasps. In ten years they will probably be prison guards. When they smell fresh blood, they get excited. How will we humiliate her. When Joyce (Yvonne Lime) shows up all squeaky clean and fresh-faced, they go after her like mad dogs. Tell her that the next day, they all will wear slacks against school rules. Damn! Sure enough, Joyce shows up in slacks- the only one - and is so embarrassed that she runs to the nearest malt shop where she gets hit on by the older Mike (Brett Halsey). He is in theory the good guy in the film, but comes across to today's audience as a possessive creep chasing jailbait.



But Joyce wants to be part of the Club. The In-Crowd. The Kool Kids. You are a nobody if you don't belong. So she goes along with the rules. Tricks and kicks. Then at an illegal party, one of girls falls or is pushed down the stairs and dies. Just leave her there. A welcome home gift to the unsuspecting family away on vacation. Say nothing. We weren't here. There was no party. Tell the cops nothing. I was kind of hoping that Joyce would pick up a gun and start blasting away. But school shootings didn't happen then. Instead, she just pouts and fights with her asshole dad.