Trip With the Teacher (1975)

Deadly Field Trip

Cast:

Edward Cross is Station Attendant
David Villa is Station Customer
Jack Driscoll is Marvin - Bus Driver
Susan Russell is Pam
Zalman "Galaxy of Terror was an epic movie..." King is Al
Cathy Worthington is Julie

What the box says:

A chilling experience in terror as a group of female students and the pretty teacher are ambushed, while on a field trip, by a sadistic killer and his brother, forcing the women to learn a lesson in survival.

Plot:

A school bus of teen girls are heading on a trip to an archeological site.

On the road, the brothers, Pete and Al are trying to fix their motorcycles when Jay, the truly good-guy, stops to help them. They decide to ride together for a while. Passing the bus, the girls are waving and flirting.

Of course, neither of us are crazed psycho-killer bikers that only make a cheap movie plot... By random luck, all stop at the gas station.Jay meets with one of the girls before the bus heads out. The gas atttendant takes care of the bikes. Al stays behind a little for when the attendant goes under a car, he lets the jack loose which causes the car to crush the attendant to death.

The bus breaks down several miles down the road. Marv the driver isn't able to get it fixed. A couple of the girls break out to cat-fight because that's genetically required in 1970s b-movies.

Well, this one time in band camp.... Pete, Al, and Jay pull up. Al and Pete can't fix the bike. Mis Tenney, the teacher, asks if they go and call for help. She refuses to let any of the girls go with the guys.

The bikers haul the bus to a nearby deserted farm. Al and Pete keep threatening to leave them there and drive off. Miss Tenney takes enough until Al slaps her. The brothers chase Marv around before running over him.

Who knew bikers would think that jumping over school bus drivers would be so exciting> Al is getting terrified of the idea of going to back to jail and need to eliminate all the witnesses.

Jay realizes that the brothers might go after them but hopes they just ride off.

That night, in the farmhouse, the girls are sitting around terrified. When Al wants for Bobbie, one of the girls, to "entertain" him, Miss Tenney and Jay stop it. Al drags Miss Tenney into another room and attacks her before the ominous music plays for a worse attack.

Pete ties Jay up. Bobbie distracts Pete so Judy can untie Jay who manages to run away for help. Jay hops on his bike and is chased by Pete who is able to ram Jay off a 60 foot cliff.

You'd have escaped me if you hadn't spent all that time putting on your helmet...

Back at the farm, Al is acting more and more deranged. Miss Tenney tells Tina, the mousy girl, to escape and go for help. The brothers realize that Tina has escaped. Al chases, catches, and strangles her. That night Al returns to the farm. Pete is boozing heavier.

The next morning, Pete steps out of the farm when a noose is dropped around his neck. It's Jay who hangs him. Al walks out and the final fight begins. Al versus Jay. Miss Tenney grabsa steel rod and impales Al.

Later, Jay rides off for help. Miss Tenney and the girls hug in 1970s style as the credits roll.

What I say:

The 2000s has been trying to make plenty of those type of horror movies of the Saw variety and remaking practically everything from the 1970s and 1980s. The question is why haven't they tried to remake more of these totally unforgotten save for being on the chead DVD movie collections...The 1970s is known for more than just Disco. That is the decade with widest known range of the numerous sub-genres of B-movies from Blacksploitation, Brucesploitation, Jawsploitation, Zombiesploitation, the action-movie style of the Italian cop genre to milk off of French Connection and Dirty Harry among others, and the the other subgenres.

The 1970s horror sub-genres were trying to push the the boundaries further. The thriller movies had quite a few of the cheezy types along with more of the Sam Peckinpaw stuff like Straw Dogs which had the violence edging further along. With the crazed psychoes of the Hills Have Eyes and Last House on the Left, it was expected that someone was going to make more of them in those days.

Names in movies are typically hard to keep track of if the names are not mentioned for more than a half hour into the movie and we're just expected to figure who is who. These characters are normally the archetypes: the "nice girl", the "mousy" or "glasses" girl, the "Party" girl, etc... Most characters in these kind of movies are the typically 2nd or 3 degree derivative characters...(Yes, pointless Calculus derivative humor...)Thankfully, the characters are better than those in Cabin Fever.

Bikers got a leg up thanks to the Wild One in the 1950s with Marlon Brando. The 60s saw a rise in biker movies like Hellcats, Werewolves on Wheels, and the greatest biker movie, Easy Rider, along with the perfect biker song from Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild. The 1970s had quite a range of b-movie genres coming around. The biker b-movie was starting to run low on gas.

Crazy bikers go on a killing spree and hold a teacher and her students hostage. This isn't the kind of movie that is known as a triumph of the human heart. A movie that has at least a couple of actors who popped up in some sci-fi movies. Not even that. Zalman King was in Galaxy of Terror the 1980s cheap version of Event Horizon. He is more known for directing his movies of the 80s and 90s which gave Cinemax the reason they were known as Scinemax. The other crazy biker was in the Klansman.

Like life, some movies leave a bad taste in your mouth. If we knew they were so rancid, they be avoided like a proverbial plague. Massacre still has the low bar. Trip With the Teacher isn't quite that. Does it take much to realize that I'm not much of the thriller grindhouse subgenre. In fact, the only reason this movie has any semblance of a life is because it is on several of Millcreek's DVD compilation sets of movies.

Quotable Dialogue
"Where you goin' thataway?"
"You don't have to like things to good at them."
"Boy are you ever ferocious."
"That's a very assute observation."
Morals of the Story
Archelogical sites are full of numerous historical facts.
Bikers should carry bicycle pumps.
Insulting bikes of psychopaths is a bad idea.
3 motorcycles can tow a school bus.
Always use the time to slowly put on a motorcycle helmet when trying to outdrive crazy bikers.
60 foot cliff drop only slows the hero down.