School's out. Killing's in.
Something vengeful is happening at Fairview High...
Head Girl Justine Fielding couldn't be happier with her prep school life. She's quickly fitting into the 'in' crowd, the local heartthrob wants to date her, and she's primed for Oxford University. Sure, the suicide of bullied asthmatic Darren Mullet was a drag, but she didn't even know the kid.
But when strange texts begin to come in and gruesome killings slowly build, she learns that there's more to her new friends than she thought. As paranoia mounts and they slowly start to turn on each other, the brutal body count begins to slowly rise.
And while she didn't know Darren, he knew her...
This film contains examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Mullet's defining trait of asthma was strong enough to carry over to his corpse. He is narrowly defeated when the protagonists crush his inhaler, weakening him and stopping his Offscreen Teleportation. Unfortunately for Alexis, he accidentally returned a stolen one to him...
- Adults Are Useless: The unnamed headmaster. Does as little as he possibly can to crack down on Fairview's bullying endemic, not to mention coldly dismissing Khallilah's anguished cries for help over the phone.
- Alpha Bitch: Tasha is an extreme example.
- Asshole Victim: Everyone. With the exception of Jason. Partial examples are Nasser and maybe Alexis.
- Justine counts as well, depending on interpretation.
- Big Bad: Bradley started the conflict by bullying Darren to death.
- Black Comedy- in places, most notably Sophie's death, wherein Mullet dons a hilariously jarring pair of swimming goggles, right before diving on top of her and leaving her to drown beneath the weight of his ample buttocks
- Brought Down to Normal: Mullet is briefly weakened when his inhaler is destroyed.
- Chekhov's Gun: The faulty paper guillotine. Poor Khallilah.
- In a lesser, malevolent example, Nasser's new deafness stops him from saving Justine and Alexis.
- Mullet's stolen inhaler too. This one really comes back to bite Alexis in the ass.
- Downer Ending: Justine is framed for all of Darren's murders and Darren is free to continue killing.
- Driven to Suicide: Mullet. It doesn't last.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After watching Justine lose her virginity to one of his tormentors, the vengeful Darren decides to start implicating her for the murders (though he could also be targeting her as she ignored his pleas for help after getting his inhaler taken). It works.
- After telling the Fairview bullies under duress that Darren loved Justine, leading to a near asthma attack that Justine watches on the website, Mullet turns on Jason.
- The End... Or Is It?: It looks like Darren has vanished forever after killing all his targets and framing Justine for the murders. However, a scene in the credits shows him going after an asshole football coach.
- Fate Worse than Death: With damning evidence, Justine is publicly framed for killing her boyfriend and his friends.
- Funnily enough, Nasser survives and is seen in a much later scene happily reading a sign language book.
- Final Girl: Justine's fate. Besides Nasser, who was punished differently.
- Foregone Conclusion: Justine survives the bloodbath and is arrested by the police at the school.
- Funny Background Event: The above example of Nasser teaching himself sign language while Justine and Alexis slam against the glass for help.
- Groin Attack: Bradley is dealt a particularly grisly one.
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: Darren Mullet leaves a suicide note to his only friend, Jason. Jason later gives the note to Justine.
- How We Got Here: The film begins with Justine's public arrest. The questions are how and why.
- Hope Spot: Justine and Alexis briefly have one when they overcome Mullet by breaking his inhaler. Thanks to a bullying flashback, it doesn't stick. Cue murder.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Marcus. Also, Jason, albeit less traditionally.
- In Medias Res: Opens at the very end, with Justine being escorted off Fairview grounds by the police. The rest of the movie depicts the chain of events leading up to this.
- Model Couple: Bradley and Tasha are cruel bullies but they are a stunningly beautiful couple.
- Off With Her Head! Tasha.
- Only Friend: Jason to Darren, even after his death. But he betrayed him once before...
- Ordered Apology: The principal makes Jason apologize to Justine for calling her a hypocrite.
- Phone Call from the Dead: Mullet calls his classmates after he dies.
- Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Bradley's room.
- Proud Beauty: Tasha is strikingly beautiful and uses this to her advantage.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: SUCK! MY! TITTIES!
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Courtesy of our undead friend Mr. Mullet.
- Sadist Teacher: Mr. Ramsay.
- Sensory Abuse: Mullet ties Nasser to a chair, tapes his headphones on and forces him to listen to his own music at a volume so loud his ears start bleeding. Leaving him deaf.
- Sex for Solace: Partially the intended effect of calming Bradley down after his breakdown from digging up Darren's empty grave. But the Villain Protagonist had other plans...
- Sex Signals Death: Having car sex with your girlfriend at Darren's grave, after learning it's empty is asking for trouble.
- Shout-Out / Take That!: The belligerent, elitist PE teacher is referred to as 'Gordon' by the headmaster, and then in The Stinger where Mullet prepares to eliminate him he is addressed as 'Mr.Ramsay' thus making his full name.... Gordon Ramsay.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Mullet classmates make fun of him even after he's dead.
- Teens Are Monsters: Mullet's classmates bully him all the time and eventually he commits suicide.
- The Stinger: You forgot about the P.E. teacher, didn't you? Mullet didn't.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: We learn of some of Mullet's abuse through cell phone footage on a bullying website, and Justine learns that she could have stopped it if she had a little paid more attention...
- Verbed Title
- Villain Protagonist: Darren Mullet, though considering who he's fighting, the 'villain' aspect could be considered superficial at best.
