National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982)

This isn’t a sequel to National Lampoon’s Animal House, although I can understand why someone might go into National Lampoon’s Class Reunion expecting those beloved scoundrels to be back together. Coming off the back of such a massive hit, Class Reunion feels surprisingly cheap and undercooked, although there might have been a few cost cutting decisions happening behind the scenes. Movie Madness had actually been made before this but was delayed and released afterwards, suggesting there might have been some production difficulties surrounding that film and perhaps Class Reunion was rushed into production. Whatever the circumstances were, what made it to the screen is an extraordinarily thin comedy.

The plot is essentially a spoof of the slasher movies that were all the rage at the time. We follow a group of former high-school classmates who attend a reunion 10 years after graduation, only to find themselves being picked off by a mysterious killer. The problem is that spoofs of slasher movies were themselves becoming increasingly common, leaving Class Reunion arriving for a party that was already getting over-crowded. There are opportunities for some fun horror-comedy here, but the film rarely manages to get it right.

The cast is an odd mixture of familiar faces from the early-’80s comedy scene and a few less-established performers who presumably helped keep the budget under control. Gerrit Graham is essentially the lead, although Class Reunion is really more of an ensemble of deliberately wacky characters being let loose and hoping something is funny. Graham is a naturally watchable actor and one of my favourites, but even he can’t rise above the material. His character might have looked funny on paper, but watching how frequently the gags fail across an entire movie is another matter entirely.

Stephen Furst does help alleviate the pain with a suitably sleazy performance. Furst always brightens up even the weakest comedy, although he had far better material to work with in similar film like in Animal House, Getting Wasted and Up the Creek. He brings some much-needed energy to Class Reunion, and his appearances are among the few occasions when the film feels like something is working.

They roll out Chuck Berry for a couple of numbers and a boogie with the cast, but, another performance worth mentioning is Zane Buzby’s. Her character possesses some inexplicable powers that the film never bothers to explain, but Buzby attacks the role with such wonderfully mad physicality that she’s impossible to forget. She is a genuinely funny performer, even if the character itself makes very little sense.

The script was written by John Hughes, which makes the whole thing even more baffling. There must have been some kind of special deal done because it’s difficult to believe this came from the same writer who would go on to produce so much memorable work. Almost nothing works. The plot is threadbare, there is virtually no raunchiness, the jokes routinely fall flat and the performers are left trying to squeeze laughs out of material that simply doesn’t work.

The production itself swings wildly between cheap and nasty and surprisingly well put together. I suspect some of the sets may have been recycled from another horror movie, while the opening credits are actually rather amusing and suggest, briefly, that there might be a fun little comedy lurking underneath all this nonsense. An early song-and-dance sequence also hints at a more satisfying movie, but those flashes of promise quickly disappear once the stupidity takes over.

There are occasional moments that almost work. An early exchange between Graham and Michael Lerner, accompanied by the rest of the guests repeatedly swivelling their heads from side to side as if in Wimbledon, is funny enough but goes on far too long. Anne Ramsey’s gin-swilling, cigarette-puffing cook is deliciously grotesque, and there are a handful of decent sight gags scattered around the place. Unfortunately, these moments are nowhere near enough to support an entire movie, particularly when potentially good ideas, such as Gary Nash’s character, are handled so badly.

I can safely say that I hated National Lampoon’s Class Reunion both times I watched it,as a kid and as an adult. It’s simply not funny, which is particularly frustrating because I have every reason to like it. The cast, the period, the slasher parody angle and even John Hughes’ involvement should all make this something I’d lap up. Instead, it’s an incoherent mess of poorly realised ideas hastily assembled in the wake of the considerably better Animal House. There are a couple of performances and isolated gags worth salvaging, but they’re nowhere near enough to rescue the film.

Sorry, Gerrit. Even the mighty can appear in stinkers.

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