My quick rating – 6.5/10. Detention is the kind of movie that makes you sit up halfway through and say, “What the hell am I even watching right now?”—and I mean that in the best way possible. I hadn’t heard a single thing about this flick going in, and honestly, I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun being blindsided by a movie. It’s a chaotic genre mashup that somehow turns its ADHD-fueled insanity into a cohesive, entertaining ride.
Trying to pin Detention down into a single category is a fool’s errand. Is it a slasher flick? Yes. A teen comedy? Yep. A sci-fi time travel story? Also yes. A satire? You bet. A Breakfast Club-style coming-of-age drama? Sure, why not. It’s like someone grabbed a bucket full of genre tropes, movie references, and pop culture absurdities, tossed them into a blender, and hit “puree.” The result? A film that’s so all over the place that it loops back around into something uniquely its own.
The plot is nearly impossible to summarize without sounding like you’re making it up on the spot, but here’s a shot: a masked killer named Cinderhella is stalking Grizzly Lake High School seniors, and somehow that ties into body swaps, time loops, bear maulings, and ’90s nostalgia-fueled apocalypse scenarios. Got all that? Good, because it only gets weirder from there.
Despite the madness, the film keeps a tight pace, and its comedic timing is surprisingly sharp. The jokes come fast, often dry or meta, and rarely feel forced. The scares, on the other hand, are gleefully ineffective in the traditional sense—they’re so over-the-top or oddly timed that they become funny in their own right. That’s clearly the point, and it works in favor of the film’s manic tone.
The cast, mostly unknowns, really leans into the absurdity of the material, and it pays off. They hit the right notes between playing high school stereotypes and totally subverting them. And yes, in case you’re wondering, Dane Cook is in this. And yes, he’s actually good as the grumpy principal. Weird world.
Sure, continuity purists and logic hawks could pick this movie apart, and they’d probably be successful in finding all sorts of timeline inconsistencies and tonal whiplash moments. But why bother? Detention isn’t trying to be airtight; it’s trying to be entertaining, and it hits that target dead-on. It’s the kind of movie where someone earnestly asks, “OMG is she going to give birth to herself?”—and somehow, you’re still all in.
In conclusion, while trying to be everything simultaneously, Detention becomes something you’ve never seen before. It’s weird, wild, and kind of brilliant in its own strange way. If you’re into fast-paced, genre-bending films that don’t take themselves too seriously, go in blind like I did and just enjoy the ride.
