‘80s Italian horror TV movies aren’t always the most
memorable and have a tendency to be a little underwhelming in comparison to the
classic gialli and Eurohorror films from the ‘60s and ‘70s golden era. By the
late ‘80s, we were at, or were even beyond, the tail end of the horror boom, with
many Italian directors making movies more for television. Lamberto Bava directed a lot of TV movies throughout his career. His
‘80s horror TV movies paid a lot of homage to the classic gialli and horror
films that sculpted the genre like The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Inferno
(1980), House by the Cemetery (1981),
his father’s Black Sunday (1960),
and even his own Demons (1985). A
lot of times his TV films could be a little mediocre and almost feel like near-pointless
rehashes, like Demons 3: The Ogre (1988), but Lamberto Bava also had a tendency to
catch you by surprise with TV movies like Demons
5: The Devil’s Veil (1989), the hilarious and ‘80s satirical Dinner with a Vampire (1989), and the (previously)
hard-to-find School of Fear.
Aside
from being an interesting take on the evil kid trope, School of Fear / Il gioko does present
a lot to chew on, and like Demons 5: The
Devil’s Veil and Macabre (1980)
is a little more of what I prefer from director Lamberto Bava. Don’t get me wrong, Demons and A Blade in the Dark (1983) are awesome
too, but I honestly lamented for a time that we never really got something as
twisted, different, and well-made as Macabre.
It’s still no Macabre, but School of Fear feels a little more in
the right direction towards something twisted and different.
