Nouveau riche north country working class lad Don gets sent to posh private school Slaughterhouse, where he is roomed with troubled Willoughby. The school has recently become co-ed, the posh old-boy head is determinedly trendy and has allowed fracking to take place in school grounds. And the fracking is disturbing aeons-old tunnels underground... Meanwhile teacher Meredith Houseman is having trouble coping with a girlfriend who has gone off to Africa, and anti-fracking campaigners are camping in the woods.
If I tell you that Simon Pegg plays Meredith and Nick Frost is leader of the drug-dealing anti-fracking hippies, you will gather that this isn't entirely serious. Indeed, Michael Sheen's deliriously silly headmaster sees him having more fun than he's had in ages. The young cast is also good, particularly Asa Butterfield as Willoughby and Tom Rhys Harries as Clegg, the Flashman equivalent.
There is a nod to Lindsay Anderson's If... but this is far broader and more comedic, albeit full of profanity and some fairly graphic violence. It is the only film I'm aware of which has an orgy scene in Latin with subtitles which, I think, is something to be treasured.
Oh, and don't be fooled by the top billing given to Margot Robbie on IMDB's listings. Yes, she's in it, but it's no more than a cameo.
The name of the school plays on Charterhouse, Porterhouse etc., other names calling out to English public schools. It could have done without the unnecessary and uncomfortably on-trend "z" and the end of Rulez, though.
Oh, by the way, as a horror spoof with fracking and English public school lampooning as the main setting, it is quite good fun.
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