Boarding School

An original, surprising and highly creative coming to terms with ethnic traumas in a small, extraordinarily intelligent genre flick set in a secluded “reform school”, from which you would expect anything but that. In terms of filmmaking craft, Boarding School is impressive from the opening moments, as it develops and examines the characters in their unconventional nature, taking delight in their psychologically electrifying, innocent and treacherous interactions. The film ambushes viewers with unexpected twists at the right time and in the right places. A remarkable, fragile yet morbid, and endearingly weird film. The only one of its kind. (02/29/2024)

It’s frustrating that nobody has tried to develop this seriously, because it’s core concept, the nature of which isn’t revealed until the end, is superb. Boarding School could’ve been a new horror classic, crushing and socially relevant, but for that it needed to have been conceived a little differently. Yakin’s film ends up being nothing but a cheesy B-movie drowning in many rich motifs (many of which come out empty; there are lots absolutely pointless scenes – there are even Nazis and the Holocaust, I’m not kidding!), a shallow screenplay and flat performances. There are also a couple of truly awful things, like the make-up of the burnt boy, for instance. Fortunately, it’s bizarre and WTF enough to keep me interested in how things turn out (sometimes it’s so bizarre that I felt the creators were taking the piss). The resolution, as I’ve already mentioned, gets another point. But still, the feeling of a wasted opportunity. (08/31/2018)

This absolutely flew under my radar, but in the end it is a very good genre film that made me happy. The story focuses on a special school where there are seven students, each special in some way and sick at the same time. Soon, however, strange things start happening at the school and the dead start to pile up. Great atmosphere, a lot of unexpected plot developments, I was surprised how many surprises the director had in store for the viewer and an unexpectedly quite edgy finale. Good stuff. 75% (09/04/2018)