The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

It is more often than most people think, that audiences think to themselves during a feature “what in the world is happening?” This can either be due to their own lack of attention or the filmmaker’s inability to create a comprehensive narrative. The new horror feature called Boarding School adheres to the latter.

The plot follows young Jacob (Luke Prael), who has constant nightmares about a bloody-faced woman in his room. Matters worsen when Jacob’s grandmother passes away and he is terrorised by one of his grandmother’s acquaintances about what they both faced as Jewish girls during the Holocaust, and his stepfather catches him dancing in his grandmother’s clothes. Jacob soon finds himself shipped to a boarding school for “unique persons” where they only study the bible, there are only six classmates who all seem to have been dumped there by their parents for different “disabilities”, and the headmaster and sole teacher, Dr. Sherman (Will Patton), employs corporal punishment for the most trivial of reasons. Jacob soon finds out the headmaster and his “wife” have sinister intentions and, like his grandmother, he needs to do whatever he can in order to survive.

The plot seems intriguing and it is. The film’s main problem is that it haphazardly combines so many interesting aspects in one movie. The nightmares/flashbacks about Jacob’s grandmother are extremely fascinating and could even stand alone to make a separate feature, but they are so lousily integrated into the film, if at all, that they lose their gravitas. The film also contains too many unanswered questions and loose ends.

The setting of the film takes place within a rather hauntingly beautiful mansion that is secluded and surrounded by electric fences. The mansion, the cinematography, as well as the overall handling of the plot give the film a dark fairytale-like mood which is in itself captivating, regardless of the messy nature of the plot.

As for the acting, Luke Prael is able to convey the morbid creepy child aspect of his role, but is lacking when it came to aspects such as his character’s confused sexuality and murderous tendencies. Playing one of Jacob’s classmates, and perhaps the most interesting one, Sterling Jerins shines in the role of the psycho girl who enjoys pain. Together, Prael and Jerins are able to convey a mini love story that is both psychotic and sentimental. Will Patton is convincing in the evil headmaster role; just enough to be believable but not quite enough for his performance to truly stand out.

This is a very odd film; it questions child sexuality, delves into Nazi history, and it might have even crossed into the vampire world. It is not actually that scary but, if you are looking for something strange, new, and creepy, this film might just be for you.