‘Class of 1984’ Retro: We Are the Future!

August 23, 2022

An unexpected thing happened in 2015… during my seasonal perusal of new releases from Shout Factory’s Scream Factory collection, I was picking up Escape from New York and Vampire’s Kiss. I needed at third pick to justify the purchase (and maybe earn some free shipping). That’s when I first came across Class of 1984, a pulpy-looking teen exploitation jaunt from director Mark L. Lester (who I only knew from the Dolph Lungren flick Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). I blindly bought it from the trailer, expecting a b-movie with some of my favorite corny camp.

Boy, was I wrong.

First, I’d like to say, shame on me for not knowing about this film until 2015.

This movie hits with a ton of pure lead, the kind of feeling like rubbernecking a pile-up on the freeway. What started as a Dangerous Minds kind of teacher-feature devolved into spiraling mayhem with table saws, and you just have to see how far the rabbit hole goes. Completely captivating, dripping with lurid tension and punk-rock havoc, it was something I never knew I needed to see. And I did need to see it. And you do, too.

Looking back at the film, released two years before its titular year, there’s some prophecy to be gleaned, and horror to be realized, in its reels. Lester himself has said the film was supposed to be a warning of things to come; it’s clear how no one was ready to heed the warnings laid out in Class of 1984. It was ahead of its time, as the hum of the school violence tuning fork resonates with us still today.

Music teacher Andrew Norris (Perry King) arrives at his new inner-city school, where metal detectors and security guards protect the entrance. Graffiti lines the halls and gangs run rampant. Biology teacher Terry Corrigan (Roddy McDowell) has resorted to carrying a gun to class for protection.

At the start of his first class, Andy is confronted by Peter Stegman (Timothy Van Patten), leader of one of the most ruthless gangs in school. When the confrontation ends, Andy realizes there are kids in class who want to learn – including a very young Michael J. Fox as a gifted troubadour, Arthur. But as Andy attempts to mentor his gifted pupils, the run-ins with Peter and his gang only intensify, leading to drugs, bloodshed, sexual assault, and climactically, murder.

Director Mark L. Lester came up with the idea after visiting his old high school, where gangs roamed freely with no dress code nor discipline. He imagined what it would be like to be a teacher at the school and began extensive research only to find incident after incident of school violence. In the early 1980s, it was mind-boggling for Lester to come across everything from drugs and prostitution, to teachers arming themselves for class. And thus the story started to form.

Taking inspiration from the likes of Blackboard Jungle (1955), Lester was trying to predict a future where gangs and violence ran rampant in high schools, and teachers found themselves needing to fight back. Lester wrote the story and gave it to genre legend Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play, The Beast Within), who completed the first draft, going back-and-forth with Lester over real stories and amplifying them for the screen. Lester did final revisions with John C.W. Saxon and Barry Schneider, who added in the kid’s “own language” a la A Clockwork Orange (1971). Schneider would later ask that his name to not be credited after seeing what he found to be an offensive final cut.

At the beginning of the ‘80s slasher obsession, what Roger Ebert called the “Dead Teenager genre” that had been “seriously weakened… by wave upon wave of cheap, idiotic tax-shelter films,” Lester created a simple, real story with edges sharpened to Japanese steel. Funnily enough, much of the funding came from Canadian-investors looking for that tax shelter benefit, introduced to Lester by Merrie Lynn Ross, who would take on the emotionally-demanding role of Diane Norris.

While the film does have a moral center, there’s absolutely nothing after-school-special about Class of 1984. It’s raw and vulgar, crass and loud, and even at times, outright hilarious. But a lot of care was taken to make it absolutely entrancing and real, by both filmmakers and actors alike.

The performances are razor sharp, with Perry King embodying an inspiring teacher on the brink. His actions in the climax feel justified, despite the terrifying implication of violence against students. Roddy McDowell gives a stunningly emotional performance that tugs at your heart as well as your psyche. Timothy Van Patton oozes charisma that just makes hating him even more enjoyable, while Michael J. Fox’s Arthur sympathetically strives against his oppressors. Without these performances, Class of 1984 would be just another trashy-exploitation flick relegated to VHS obscurity.

Though, it wasn’t all roses for the cast, as many of the Canadian actors who came into production were put through Lester’s trials of authenticity. When actors hired to play punk rock gang members were put together with actual punk slam dancers, the spit-and-safety pin crowd didn’t take kindly to the posers. They would harass them, assault them in the name of “slam dance,” and genuinely terrified Lisa Langlois, who played Patsy. The pulp authenticity of the movie exposes the reality of Lester’s production, creating honest horror, and adding to its overall effectiveness.

The original, iconic soundtrack included songs by Fear, who also lent their movie-friendly punk sound to Repo Man, SLC Punk!, and Green Room, and Teenage Head, who performed in the punk club scenes. While composer Lalo Schifrin, with the help of Steve Winwood, would create the original song “I Am the Future”, bringing in iconic shock rocker Alice Cooper to appeal to teen audiences. Timothy Van Patton himself wrote “Stegman’s Concerto”, actually performing the piece and rounding out the great depth of his performance. It had all the pieces of a teen sensation and pointed commentary to blow audiences away.

Overseas, after an exemplary showing at Caan, Class of 1984 was exalted as cinematic genius, and yet no U.S. studio would touch it. He screened for Frank Price of Columbia Pictures, who shot it down outright. Paramount agreed to a New York Preview, so Frank Manuco Sr. could see audience reception in his neighborhood. Unfortunately, the preview, which was supposed to be playing as a double-feature with Death Wish 2, ended up playing against Porky’s on the theater’s “teen girl’s night”, where teen girls and their mothers got free entry.

The target audience was missed by a mile as a theater full of 12-year-old girls, their mothers, and one Paramount executive experienced Class of 1984 in all its lurid glory. A hoard of angry mothers accosted Manuco Sr. in the lobby after the screening, killing any possibility of a Paramount release.

The issue was that while studios execs enjoyed the film, the controversial subject matter would never be okayed by the theaters themselves. Warner Brothers told Lester if he could prove a theater would play the film, they would buy it. He went to United Artist Theatres, who happily agreed to put it on 1,000 screens. Lester was excited to throw it in Warner’s face (but also happily give them distribution rights) when U.A. said, “Are you crazy, kid? You’re the distributor now!”

Lester got a $500,000 advance and an independent national release on August 20, 1982, right before kids went back to school. It bumped the Warner Brothers release of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which was underperforming in New York, and providing a nice retribution for Lester, who showed Warner Bros. what they had missed. The film made $1.3m on its opening weekend with lines around the block.

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The release itself had its own controversial twist, as Lester had cut a significant amount of one particularly violent scene to reduce its X-rating to an R. By random circumstance, the X-rated reels were distributed and shown throughout its first few weeks. One can only wonder if perhaps that helped the film get picked up by other theaters and make waves across the globe.

No matter which cut you see, the film is criminally underrepresented in the zeitgeist. Those who have seen it know it to be an impactful and captivating film that demands a re-watch many times over.

Also back in 2015, Lester revealed his desire to remake the film as a spiritual sequel more than an all-out remake. He imagines taking the themes to a private school, where parents can “buy off” administrators to stop their precious troublemakers from getting expelled. Though it remains unclear where the film is in pre-production, allegedly Perry King will return playing the role of school principal. Until then, Class of 1984 holds up to this day, 40 years later, providing its warning and hopefully breaking any sort of prophecy it may hold by simply existing and being seen by generations to come.