"The Lesson" - A Review!!!

Saw meets Grange Hill in Ruth Platt’s grisly school shocker “The Lesson”, which is out on UK VOD this month on the Frightfest Presents label and is playing at this years Glasgow film festival on the 20th.

In a story which seems to reflect the sad state of the youth of today, who seem to have a free license to be as unruly, obnoxious and disruptive as they please. Whilst the teachers can do little to control them, because discipline is now classified as abuse in the eyes of the law. The story predominantly revolves around one such delinquent named Finn (Evan Bendall).

He and his group of friends, who are in their final year at comprehensive school, seem to have little interest in learning, and are counting down the days to their 16th birthdays, when they can finally leave. So spend most of their school days, being as rude and obnoxious during class as they can and have turned the pursuit of “seeing how far they can wind the teacher up before he breaks” into a fine art. Not that they behave any better out of school either.

But whilst Finn and his friend Joel are walking home one evening, their stroll is cut short when they are battered over the head from behind and bundled into a vehicle. Waking several hours later, bloodied and strapped to a bench, they discover perhaps they shouldn’t have pushed their teachers so hard, as one of them has decided to teach them a very important lesson that they will never forget.

Somewhat reminiscent of “Class of 1984”, writer and director Ruth Platt’s (actress – “The Pianist”) film directorial debut  is a very grim tale and a damning indictment of the state of education today, owing to lack of classroom discipline. Finn and his friends certainly make for very unlikeable characters, and this is the one rare occasion I was cheering for the films villain, as he proceeded to exact an extremely brutal punishment every time they get one of his questions on English literature wrong (Hey, this isn’t just a horror, it’s educational too!!!).

My only regret was that the teacher didn’t do much worse, and that he didn’t also get the other friend in their group as well. But despite all the gore and nastiness, there’s also a streak of jet black humour that runs throughout and learning about classic English literature has never been more fun!!!.

The film is playing the Glasgow Film Festival Sat Feb 20th, for more info visit HERE

The film is released to UK VOD outlets Feb 29 from ‘Frightfest Presents…’