I was expecting so much from this movie, and I was bitterly disappointed. The previews of "Haunted High" show what looks to be a decent haunted school movie, but the opening exposition is weak and the plot gets even more ridiculous as the movie continues. There's barely a plot, only a body count. Once again, someone with a misconception of ghosts and haunted houses creates a movie that carries no logic and absolutely no credibility, but then, this movie was made specifically for SyFy Channel, so the budget could not have been that great. The plot involves a group of students trapped in a haunted school after hours by the ghost of a cruel former teacher who dabbled in Satanism, played by M.C.Gainey, better known as Mr. Friendly from "Lost," who is the most talkative evil ghost I've ever seen in an independent horror movie. As he goes through killing students, joined by a wild-haired succubus who crawls the walls, he spouts weak puns like a poor man's Freddy Krueger. The so-called haunting activity is ridiculous (the Biology frogs return to life), and I don't care how cursed a school is, ghosts cannot alter reality. (One student goes out the window to realize he's still trapped in the school.) What starts as a ghost movie turns into a splatter and gore flick. At one time or another, someone is always asking, "What's going on?" before predictably wandering off and getting knocked off as uncreative as possible. Charisma Carpenter also allegedly stars in this movie, but her character is killed as fast as she appears in one of the shortest movie appearances by a major actress for a character ever. Danny Trejo pulls a strong performance as the janitor with the knowledge of the school's past to save the students. Bottom line: what starts as a neat premise never goes anywhere. SyFy needs to stop producing tripe like this and go back to airing the classics, or at least hire filmmakers with some writing talent. The only neat thing about this movie is a reference to "Sinister Sites," the fictional paranormal TV series from "House Of Bones" which actually did star Charisma Carpenter so apparently these films might share the same writers. Bottom line: "Haunted High" is barely worth watching as a waste of your time, but if you really want to get scared, rent "The Others" or "The Haunting."
