If you think you know about trashy movies from watching Sy Fy’s latest abomination of animal cross breeding, then you aren’t familiar with Troma Films. Troma is the be all, end all of over the top films that jam cheesy gore, gratuitous nudity and so much b-movie violence that you laugh and cringe at the same time. These are the sort of films that are shown way, way late at night and for a good reason. Today, I want to discuss a little bit about this movie cause frankly, Troma knows how to do a high school movie better than John Hughes. Yeah I said that.
The film is about a New Jersey high school (Tromaville High School), which is conveniently located next to a nuclear power plant. The gang of the school, called “The Cretins”, deals drugs among the students. They pick leaves from a radioactive marijuana plant located in the yard of the nuclear plant and sell it to Eddie for $10. He smokes it at a party with his friends Warren and Chrissy. That night, they both have hallucinations. Chrissy discovers that she is pregnant, and spits a little monster into a toilet bowl. The creature travels through the water pipes and lands in a barrel filled with radioactive waste, and mutates into a bigger creature. Meanwhile, Warren has super strength and kills two of the Cretins. The rebel gang takes over the school and start destroying it, and they take Chrissy hostage and take her to the basement. Warren goes into the school to save her, and he discovers the adult monster, who kills every one of The Cretins. Warren finally kills the beast with a laser he found in the physics laboratory, and he and Chrissy leave the school right after the monster explodes along with the school. The film ends with a frame of the monster “baby” squirming through the remains of the destroyed school. (source)
If you read the synopsis above, then multiply the descriptions by ten as you will get to see all of that unfold in a glory, circle jerk of gore and pure 80s cheese. Troma Films are a one of a kind experience, mainly because they worked with a small budget and had no rules when it came to having a boundary in what can be shown and done in their movies. Class of Nuke ‘Em High is a special kind of perverse enjoyment, a film in a league of its own with basically cramming every possible Troma specialty into one breeding ground for astonishment. I would say if you haven’t seen a Troma movie before, Class of Nuke ‘Em High is a wonderfully absurd stepping stone into the B-Movie world.
I said before that Class of Nuke ‘Em High seems a like a big mixing pot of all of their previous films and just cherry picked the best parts from them. I would agree with that notion as this movie just is grotesquely absurd and captivating. I love the fact that there is literally no rules to this movie. The trailer basically just shows a continuous cavalcade of money shots from mutant births, mutilations, and run amok punks terrorizing the place. It is just an over the top piece of cult classic that you can’t look away from the parade of sideshow horror gags and fairly inventive, low-fi special effects.
For me, I can never get enough of Troma Films. They are really the dirties diamonds amongst the rough of films out there. I would venture a guess and say that if this is your first time seeing a Troma film, then this is a good start. It’s a litmus test to see you can move on to their catalog of franchise staples like Sgt. Kabukiman or Toxic Avenger. Even then, their non-serial films also are just as arresting. Believe me when I say that you if you enjoy those lame, cheesy Sy-Fy movie of the month, then Troma films is the next logical step. Class of Nuke ‘Em High is just one of the better offerings from Troma and the gore, horror, comedy, and cheese factor is incredibly high. I realize that fans of the production company will say that that statement is like saying “Class of Nuke ‘Em High is the best turd of the bunch” but it is the best. So take that!
