Illustration : Unknown

The Student Body
 

Gus Trikonis | USA| 1975

From the Brandywine Productions stable (Alien, Women in Love), comes this rarely seen didactic drama from exploitation journeyman Gus Trikonis (The Swinging Barmaids, Dance of the Dwarves) about three incarcerated and rampageous young girls: Carrie, Chicago and Mitzi. The delinquent trio are given the chance of parole from the penitentiary in exchange for their participation in an experiment at a nearby college. Under the watchful eye of Professor Blalock (Warren Stevens; Cyborg 2087, Forbidden Planet) the girls are given a daily dose of an experimental and potentially dangerous psychoactive drug; unbeknownst to all however, Blalock has already accepted a cheque for $150,000 from the drug's manufacturer — to ease any ethical concerns.

Predictably, things start to go downhill from the offset as the dosage causes the trio to become successively more uncooperative, aggressive, and ultimately destructively violent. Chicago (Janice Heiden) almost beats to death a fellow student after he rejects her advances; Mitzi (June Fairchild) becomes psychotically obsessed with penguins — a condition brought on having been abused by a priest, while Carrie (Jillian Keshner) channels her belligerence into uncovering who the real driving force is behind Blalock's shady experiment…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fairly obscure, not to mention forgotten film must have left US audiences baffled upon its release, due to it being marketed as a saucy campus romp instead of the more serious anti-pharmaceutical vehicle it transpired to be. In the UK, Trikonis’ film was passed over for a cinema release, leaving its belated premiere for Global Sales Ltd’s VIZ label, where it received a strangely harsh '18' rating — possibly on request of the distributor to maximise rental potential.

The imaginative sleeve design (artist unknown) suitably catches the eye, but still manages to mislead its audience with the depiction of a gigantic syringe poking out of the cover. Interestingly, during the formative years of post-Video Recordings Act videos, this remains the only film in the range of VIZ titles which hadn't received an earlier 'pre-cert' release.

 

aka : Classroom Teasers

cast : Warren Stevens, Jillian Kesner, Janice Heiden, June Fairchild, Peter Hooten, Alan McRae, David Ankrum, Judith Roberts, Vic Jolley, Faith Barnhart, Holmes Osborne