DEADLY LESSONS (1983)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

I guess the title suggests that it's the rich-girl victims who are being taught "deadly lessons" by the slasher who invades their prestigious girls' school. Yet the script isn't interested in observations about class, even though it does give us a viewpoint character who's got into the school on a scholarship pass. But the primary concern seems to be delivering a quickie thriller that coasted on the (then-waning) appeal of the theatrical slasher-subgenre, while still keeping the sex-and-violence at a very low level. In fact, I think there were probably episodes of crime TV-shows of the time that were more violent than LESSONS.

Viewpoint character Stefanie (Diane Franklin of AMITYVILLE II) is a terminal "nice girl" who enlists in the school, and encounters all the expected tropes-- nice girls who want to be her friends, mean girls who want to walk all over her, a handsome young horse-trainer (and potential boyfriend), and a creepy janitor. It's all very standard until some of the girls begin dropping dead. The school's dean Miss Wade (top billed Donna Reed) is deeply concerned about the school's reputation, but she's never a serious suspect. Investigating officer Kemper (Larry Wilcox of CHIPS fame) does manage to come up with a decent suspect, but since he's rounded up before the movie's half over, the experienced viewer knows it's red herring time. The solution of the mystery, such as it is, does involve Miss Wade, and while I didn't exactly see it coming, the psychology of the killer wasn't especially interesting.

Like a lot of TV-movies this one is mostly interesting for the cast, which includes, in addition to Reed and Wilcox, Ally Sheedy and Nancy ("Bart Simpson") Cartwright. David Ackroyd plays John, a forty-something man who's the nearly constant companion of the sixty-something dean, but the script tiptoes around the matter of their having any sort of romantic liaison. Diane Franklin is the only actor who acquits herself well, bringing some intensity to her good-girl role. Before being revealed the killer is seen in brief shadowy scenes, so he doesn't have any special attributes beyond being a perilous psycho.