No class has less class than this class.
National Lampoon's Class Reunion is a Horror Comedy film from 1982 and a parody of the Slasher Movie.Its plot follows the attendees of Lizzie Borden High School's 10-year reunion, who find themselves being terrorized by a former classmate of theirs named Walter Baylor, who went mad after a prank pulled on him prior to graduation. As the alumni start vanishing and turning up dead, they have to work together to escape the building before they all die.
This film provides examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Walter might be a Serial Killer, but he's doing it because of a cruel prank his classmates pulled on him 10 years ago, and the final moment of the film where everyone apologizes to him for what they did is the most notable moment of this.
- Alliterative Name: Meredith Modess and Carl Clapton.
- Anyone Can Die: Played straight and averted. Only 2 people are killed in this film, and while we see Walter attack a third person, the victim is revealed to still be alive.
- Big Bad: Dr. Young ends up being Walter in disguise.
- Closed Circle: The school building has all the doors and windows locked, leaving everyone with no way out.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Walter's disguise has a skirt.
- Final Girl: Gender-inverted. Gary the forgettable everyman is the unsung hero of the story, though Meredith fulfills Damsel in Distress duties.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Bunny and Delores detest each other to start out, but they become friends after surviving the reunion.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The prank caused Walter to lose his mind.
- Indubitably Uninteresting Individual: Gary, whose name nobody seems to remember at the reunion. Bunny even writes "Jerry" on his suit when there aren't any nametags left for him.
- Latex Perfection: Walter had a secondary disguise that completely masked his identity and made him undetectable: Dr. Robert Young.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Walter covers his face with a paper bag, similar to the bags used in the prank.
- Mr. Exposition: Dr. Young worked at the mental hospital where Walter was incarcerated and explained to the others what happened after the first murder.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Everyone eventually realizes how mean they were to Walter at the end of the film, and apologize to him to get him to come down from the ceiling.
- Old Friend, New Gender: The slide show reveals that a person from their class who'd never taken gym is now a housewife in another state. Whether or not the character is transgender (they may instead have been cross-dressing in their youth) is left unspecified.
- Prank Date: Walter is seduced by a hot classmate into getting into a car with her, then she is switched out with his sister, giving him quite the surprise... not the good kind.
- Pride: Bob Spinnaker is clearly the most prideful of the attendees. He gains some humility at the end of the film to convince Walter to come down from the ceiling.
- Reunion Revenge: Walter crashed the reunion party to exact revenge on his classmates for what they did.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After escaping the asylum, Walter plans to make his classmates pay for what they did in a gruesome way.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: There are a few horror elements, but the film is primarily humorous.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Walter's twin sister had a significant involvement in the prank that caused Walter to snap. She isn't seen attending the reunion, and aside from Dr. Young revealing who she was to the other alumni who didn't know who she was, she is never mentioned. Did Walter do something to her prior to showing up at the reunion, or even being incarcerated? We never find out.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Walter fell victim to a prank 10 years ago, and now he wants revenge.
