Malibu High (1979)

I went into Malibu High (1979) thinking that it was going to be some kind of teen comedy, probably involving some sex and nudity, possibly drugs (to give the 'High' in the title a double meaning) and lots of bad behaviour from adolescents.  The film's poster certainly reinforces such expectations, with its clear implication of a student using her sexual favours with her teachers to avoid failing her final year.  While all of these elements are present in the film, they certainly aren't played for laughs in the conventional 'High School Comedy' way, with the humour, such as it is, instead being black as pitch.  The plot also takes several completely unexpected turns to arrive at a thoroughly nihilistic conclusion.   Also bucking the 'High School Comedy' expectations is the film's line-up of thoroughly dislikeable and self-absorbed characters, none of whom are written or played sympathetically.  Chief amongst these, of course, is leading lady Kim (Jill Lansing), an eighteen year old high schooler who is failing her grades in every class and is embittered over her father's suicide two years earlier (after he had walked out on his family), her lack of money and the fact that her boyfriend has ditched her in favour of a rich girl.  Deciding that getting a job is key to turning her life around, Kim decides to work for Tony, the local sleazebag pimp and drug dealer, turning tricks in the back of his grotty van.  While she turns out to be good at the job, she quickly falls out with Tony over the fact that he splits the fees with her 60:40 in his favour.  As a side hustle, she decides to seduce her male teachers in a sex for grades scheme - which proves surprisingly successful.

While 'high school bad girl becomes teacher seducing prostitute' might not be quite the sort of plot development you'd expect in a 'High School Comedy' - although you might see it, played out less explicitly, in one of those alleged true life 'High School Scandal' TV movies - it at least feels as if it might be grounded in real life.  The film's subsequent plot developments, however, take a turn into the absurd.  Finally ditching Tony, Kim instead hooks up with a mob-connected sugar daddy/pimp, who gets her better paid gigs with a better class of client in better venues the back of a skanky van.  But when she kills a client who attacks her, stabbing him with an ice pick, her new pimp suggests that she try her hand at being a hit woman, as she seems a natural killer, exhibiting no remorse.  Her first target is Tony, who has pissed off the mob and other targets follow, all successfully dispatched by Kim.  Along the way, she also does a bit of freelancing, offing her school principal, who is on to her sex for grades scheme, by stripping off in front of him, inducing a fatal heart attack.  Eventually Kim finds herself sent to kill the wealthy mob-connected father of her love rival.  Which she does, but is caught in the act by her rival, so shoots her as well.  Pursued along the beach by her erstwhile boyfriend, Kim is stopped from shooting him as well by a bullet fired by a police marksman.

Perhaps the strangest thing about the film is the way in which this utterly bizarre scenario plays out without a hint of irony, or the possibility that it is intended as a parody of conventional high school set movies.  There is nothing in script, direction or performances to suggest that were are meant to take as anything other than a serious melodrama.  Even the murder-by-sex of the principal is played out without any hint of humour or parody, which seems at odds with what is actually happening on screen as a patently absurd sequence plays out.  Ultimately, of course, this apparent discrepancy between tone and content comes down to a poor script, which frequently fails to properly explain characters' motivations and weak performances unable to convey any sub-text which might illuminate the characters' actions.  Particularly baffling is the whole pivot from prostitute to assassin on Kim's part.  Quite why her pimp thinks that killing a man in self defence would indicate that she was cut out to be a killer for hire?  Sure, she showed little or no remorse, but why should she?  The dude, after all, had attacked her.  While her previous conduct might well have shown her to be selfish and callous, that's still a long way from being a psychopath.  The transition to killer just seems so effortless and arbitrary that it simply can't be taken seriously by the audience, although the film seems to want you to take it seriously. 

For star Jill Lansing, this was to be her only credited appearance, disappearing, seemingly without trace, after Malibu High. (She was reportedly difficult to work with, despite this being her debut performance, which might explain why a film career never materialised).  While not the strongest of actors, there is, nonetheless, something quite fascinating and certainly memorable, about her performance as Kim.  As noted earlier, there is no attempt to make her, in any way, likeable or remotely sympathetic, yet by the end of the film, I can't deny that I was rooting for her, hoping that she'd find some way out her situation.  Sure, she's self pitying, duplicitous, frequently aggressive and violent, completely amoral and ungrateful but, there's no denying that her love rival is a total spoilt bitch, her teachers are sleazebags happy to take advantage of one of their own students, her mother is unsupportive and seemingly lacking in any maternal skills, the people she kills, by and large, are lowlifes who deserve all that they get and her ex-boyfriend is a selfish jerk.  So you can't help but feel that, in some warped way, Kim is entirely justified in her actions.  To be quite honest, there is nothing particularly distinguished about any aspect of Malibu High: it is clearly cheaply made with poor production values, flatly directed, weakly scripted and performed and looks surprisingly drab bearing in mind its setting.  it was shot in five weeks, without permission, on various locations and looks it.   Yet, as a whole, it is quite fascinating, with its bizarre and out of left field plot developments making it perversely enjoyable.