Movie Thoughts: Gruesome School Trip (2005)

• Released: April 1, 2022
• Directed by: Pieter Kuijpers
• Running time: 1h 36min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A young boy named Onnoval is picked on by bullies at his school. One day, he makes a deal with a creature known as "Ferluci" to make one of his stories, one where his main bully dies, become a reality. But when Onnoval realizes what he's done and what it'll mean for his classmates, he sets out on a mission to set things right.

My Thoughts

I never liked horror, even as a kid, which is why I never saw this movie as a kid. This is basically one of the Dutch equivalents to Goosegumps, except as a movie (based on a Dutch book by Paul van Loon). It's horror, but for kids. And while I wasn't into it as a kid (and let's face it, still am not), this is still a fun movie to watch as an adult.

One thing that I really like is the characters. Onnoval is a great main character. In most cliché movies, he would be the bully of the story, since he has a dark past and is into macabre things such as death. But no, he's our main character and our hero. He's obviously a flawed character (otherwise he wouldn't have made that deal with the Devil), but you can also clearly tell he's just a kid whose feelings were being manipulated by Ferluci. Onnoval's best friend Liselore is also a nice character, and the bully Gino has some nice development as well. I also found myself liking Onnoval's adopted father quite a lot. His adopted family is far from perfect but it was nice to see especially Sok grow into his role as a parent more when he realizes Onnoval needs him.

The villains in this are also quite fun, with them being this kind of unhinged vampire and a mysterious catlady. And of course there's Ferluci, an alter ego of the Devil. All three are of course defeated, but they are still just so deliciously evil and can genuinely be scary at times, at least for a younger audience. So while this won't be scaring any adults, it's just tame but just scary enough to make for good children's horror.

The child acting in this was quite decent, and of course the adult actors are also clearly having fun. Particularly the guy playing the vampire Vlapono was clearly having a lot of time. 

If the movie does have a flaw, it's that it looks a bit dated and cheap. Not to the point that it's distracting or anything, but this clearly could've been a better movie with a higher budget. We might've seen more of the haunted amusement park, or perhaps some CGI or more creative transitions as characters transform. For example, the fight between werewolf-Onnoval and the rat-creature (basically just a guy in a rather cheap-looking rat costume) was also kept pretty much in shadow and silhouette and we never even get to see Onnoval in his wolf form, which is a bit of a shame. Again, I don't think it breaks the movie, but it does make it feel a bit cheap and simple at times. 

But overall this is a solid movie. It's fun enough for older watchers like me, and for kids this is the perfect type of "not too scary but scary enough" of children's horror.