I have a passion for 1980s slasher horror movies. In my younger years, I would rent them from Video Horizons, the local video store in Astoria, Oregon. My mom would wait for me in her minivan while I went inside to pick out a movie. The teenage clerk would always remind me that I needed to be 18 or have parental permission to rent certain films. So, I would signal to my mom through the window, and she would give a thumbs-up, unaware of what I was renting. Those gruesome movies fueled my teenage writing and inspired works like "Slaughter High," which I wrote when I was 14 years old. The transcription and original manuscript are attached. Enjoy!!!
Slaughter High
Written by Vincent Lee Roman
(Ryan Reed & Luke Roman helped) December 23, 1995.
October 31, 1952
Alex Van Heusen, a senior in high school, was in the gym alone after school decorating for the Halloween Sock Hop which was to be held that night. While he was standing on the top step of the 25-foot ladder he lost his balance and fell to the ground hitting his head on the brim of a paint bucket, snapping his neck and killing him instantly.
His girlfriend, Martha Connell, was waiting in the library after school. Alex was going to give her a ride home after he was done decorating. Realizing he was late, Martha decided to go see what the holdup was. As she peered into the gym she saw the horrifying sight.
She screamed at the top of her lungs “Mother of God!!!”
He was pronounced dead at 3:39 p.m. that day. Two days later he was buried under the gym floor where he lay last.
October 31, 1964
An after-school pep assembly was held at 3:30 p.m. for the upcoming football game. Suddenly, outside the sky turned dark and the school started to rumble. The power went out, then a loud yell was heard. Everybody was looking around but had no idea what was going on. When the janitor had turned the power back on, everyone saw Principal Skinner being electrocuted with the microphone and stand jammed down his esophagus. He was pronounced dead five minutes later at 3:39 p.m.
October 30, 1995
During fourth period Algebra class, Mark Donaldson and his best friend Benny Ray Rogers thought of. Areal great idea that they would tell their friends at lunch. Keli Gray, Jacki Andrews and Lea Parker were on their way to lunch when Mark and Benny stopped them in the hall. They told them the idea and the girls were thrilled about it. At lunch they saw Cory Lewis, Josh Lopez, Rahim Muhammad and Yamamoto Nagasaki. Benny and Mark told them the idea and they were also thrilled.
Their plan was to meet at Mark’s house at 10:30 p.m., walk to the school, and break through the back door and go into Mrs. Martha Connell’s classroom. They were going to sabotage her room because she was an old, dirty, wrinkly, skanky, shriveled-up, pruney, fart-knocking bitch. In other words, they hated her.
That night, Benny, Keli, Jacki, Lea, Cory, Josh, Rahim and Yamamoto all met up at Mark’s front door at the same time. They all just walked in, and they asked Yamamoto “What the hell are you doing?” when he took off his shoes before entering the Donaldson residence. They went up to Mark’s room and talked out the plan again to get it in their heads. They left for the school at 10:45 p.m. They got to the school around 11:00 p.m. and walked around back to bust the door down. Rahim ripped the door off the hinges, and they entered the school and had no idea what was waiting for them.
They crept down the back hall that led toward the gym. Then they heard a loud bang, and they turned around. The door that was ripped off its hinges was back in place, and it was locked solid shut. Now they all were a little scared, but their determination kept them going strong. They walked down the hall toward Mrs. Connell’s classroom. It took them 25 minutes to finally get the door open. They went in the room and totally demolished everything in sight. The whole vandalism took about 20 minutes, and they were satisfied.
As they left the class Josh noticed that it was now officially “Halloween”. As they were going to leave, they remembered that the door was locked, so they decided to go through the gym. As Yamamoto walked across the center of the gym, the hat he was wearing flew off his head and went behind the bleachers. He thought that was kind of weird. He told everybody else to wait for him while he went back to get his hat. When he went back to get it, the bleachers slammed against his body, crushing his skull, leaving a smattering mess of blood and brains along the wall.
Horrified at the sight, the group of teens panicked and scattered their separate ways. Josh remembered that he had a flashlight in his locker, so he decided to go get it because it was dark. When he reached in to grab it he knocked it on the ground. He bent down to snatch it when the locker door slammed, severing his head, and leaving his body twitching in the hallway in a puddle of blood.
Meanwhile, Jacki and Benny met up and decided to stay together. They were down by the locker rooms when they saw a plaque on the wall, and it read…
In memory of
Alex Van Heusen
b. 1934 – d. 1952
May he rest in peace
“Hey, I’ve heard of that guy who died back in 1952. He fell off a ladder and broke his neck or something,” said Jacki.
“How do you know?” said Benny.
“My uncle went to high school with him and told me the whole story once, but let’s just forget about it,” said Jacki.
“Did you ever hear about that one principal that got killed at an assembly back in 1964, some people say the ghost of Alex Van Heusen did it, do you think so?” asked Benny.
“I don’t know. But my mom was at that assembly, and she still has nightmares from it,” said Jacki.
“C’mon, let’s go to the locker room, I got to go pee and I’m not going by myself,” said Benny.
“Okay” sighed Jacki.
They crept into the boy’s locker room to go pee. They heard someone taking a leek, so they thought it was Mark or Rahim. Or someone else.
“Who's there” Jacki said.
Nobody answered. They heard footsteps coming toward them and they felt a cold wind as the steps passed by them. But they saw no one. They got really freaked out and ran out into the hall. They saw somebody up ahead and ran toward them. When they got up close, they noticed that the person was not familiar at all.
They said “Who are you?
The person said “Alex Van Heusen.”
Jacki and Benny got so scared they shit their pants and took off down the hall. As they darted around the corner Alex was standing in front of them. He grabbed Jacki by the neck and hucked her against a flag and the point shoved through her neck and she was stuck against the wall with blood gushing out of her mouth. Benny ran up to Jacki and tried to get her down, but Alex picked him up and slammed his forehead against a doorknob and it shoved in his head. Benny fell to the ground and his brain was hanging out of his head. They both died immediately.
Now it was 1:00 AM and Cory and Lea were in the Home-Ec Room looking for food because they were hungry. They heard someone come in through the door. They turned around and this guy was standing behind them.
Cory said, “Who the hell are you.?”
It was Alex. Alex grabbed Cory and shoved him in an oven and turned-on broil all the way up to 650° and stood in front of it so he couldn't get out. Cory was baked-up to a crisp and he looked like a raisin after one minute. A few minutes later Cory exploded in the oven and his guts went everywhere. Lea tried running out, but Alex grabbed her by the collar and suffocated her in a refrigerator.
Now all that was left was Mark, Rahim and Keli. They all met up by the band room at 1:20 AM they went in the room and all the instruments were scattered around. They didn't know what was going on and they didn't know that everyone else was dead. The piano started playing by itself and they ran out down the hall. Then they saw Jacki stuck against the wall and Benny on the ground. They all were shocked and started running towards the doors to get the hell out of the school. But the fire hose broke through the glass and wrapped around Rahim’s neck and strangled him to death. Mark and Keli ran into the gym and were so scared they didn't know where to go. Then all the windows shattered, and the bleacher started coming towards them. They started to run then Alex was standing in front of them and he reached out to grab Keli when everything started to shake.
The lights fell out of the ceiling and started landing all around them. One of the lights nailed Mark on the melon and he fell on the ground because he got knocked out. Alex took an axe and started running toward Mark. He was going to chop off his head. Right before he was going to chop off his head Keli hucked a basketball and it drilled Alex in the face. Alex went flying 10 feet and then he smacked into the wall. Keli grabbed Mark's arm and began dragging him out of the school. The school started to shake even more violently, and the ceiling started falling in. Tiles were landing all over them. They heard Alex scream “Help me!” As soon as Keli and Mark got out of the gym door the ceiling fell in and crushed Alex back down into his grave. Mark and Keli walked back to Mark's house, and they promised not to tell anyone that they were at the school because the police would think that they killed everyone.
October 31st 1995
Mark and Keli woke up and got ready to go to school. When they got to the school, they saw yellow police tape everywhere. They already knew what had happened. Everyone else was crying and hyperventilating because of the seven deaths. School was cancelled for the next week because of the people that died and because the gym roof was collapsed in. Yamamoto Josh, Rahim, Benny, Cory, Jacki and Lea were buried next to each other in the back lawn of the high school. Mark and Keli walked off and never went back to East Bay High School again.