School scares

High school can be quite an unsettling time.

Exams, teachers, boys, girls... just some of the things that can make going to school utterly terrifying.

Throw in some spooky, supernatural elements and you are in for a disturbing memorable time indeed.

The Gallows, opening here Aug 27, mines the school setting for an added level of horror.

 

 

A group of high school students plan a production called The Gallows not knowing that the play, when performed 20 years ago, went horrifically wrong resulting in a student being wrongfully killed.

The students quickly realise that some things shouldn't be resurrected at all. 

Before The Gallows make us jump, let's recap some of the scariest flicks to have graced the big screen.

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The Devil's Backbone (2001)

There's a reason why Guillermo Del Toro tops the list when it comes to gothic horror.

Effectively chilling this horror is set in 1939, during the final year of the Spanish Civil War. It follows 12-year-old Carlos who is sent to a boy's orphanage following his father's death.

There, he discovers that not only is the school haunted, there are a lot of dark secrets that are equally chilling.

 

 

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Battle Royale (2000)

This Japanese cult classic puts Katniss Everdeen to shame.

Forget The Hunger Games, this controversial flick is way more violent and morbid.

An unlucky bus load of high schoolers are thrown into the wild and forced to fight to the death using whatever weapons they can get their hands on.

These teenagers — including Death Note's Tatsuya Fujiwara — really stand no chance against the sadistic Takeshi Kitano.

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Carrie (1976)

We're not talking about the 2013 Chloe Moretz remake. This is the original Sissy Spacek classic.

Adapted from horror master Stephen King's first novel, this is a real screamer and arguably started the high-school vengeance genre.

A fanatical mother, puberty and mean girls are enough to set off shy Carrie, who is coming to terms with becoming a woman. IF that wasn't bad enough for the oppressed teen, there's also her burgeoning telekinetic powers.

When the school bullies make fun of Carrie in front of the entire school on prom night, well, they quickly realise they have messed with the wrong girl.

 

 

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Suicide Club (2001)

You can't say the Japanese are not fans of the macabre.

The film opens with a gruesome display of 50 school girls jumping in unison in front of a oncoming subway train.

This is only the first in a wave of mass suicides that sweeps across Japan, baffling the police and panicking the populace.

One's heart goes out to the two detectives who are trying to piece the puzzle together as time is not on their side. 

Forget about story, which takes in social commentary, mystery, horror and gore. This is unique work of art that will definitely freak you out.

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The Awakening (2011)

This is one attractive, old-fashioned ghost story that's extremely well-acted and all credit goes to Rebecca Hall.

The British actress plays Florence, an author who has devoted her career to exposing supernatural claims as nothing but hoaxes.

She takes on a case about a ghost sighting in a boarding school, all ready to prove that it's nothing more than a schoolboy prank.

However, as things unravel, her reliance on science may not be enough to explain the strange incidents going on around her.