Detention

Cast View all

	Alison Woods	Taylor Fisher
	Logan Stalarow	Taylor's Little Brother
	Julie Dolan	Taylor's Mom
	SHANLEY CASWELL	Riley Jones
	Daniel Negreanu	Male News Reporter
	Will Wallace	Riley's Dad
	Josh Breeding	Hipster Thief
	Marco Garcia	Janitor
	Josh Hutcherson	Clapton Davis
	Mickey River	Punk
	Jesse Heiman	Nerd
	Joseph Keane	Metro
	Percy Daggs III	Jock Kid
	Parker Bagley	Billy Nolan
	Marque Richardson	Toby T.
	A.D. Johnson	Sander Sanderson
	Michael Esparza	Pedro
	Spencer Locke	Ione
	Lindsey Morgan	Alexis Spencer
	J.R. Osborne	Truman
	Jonathan Park	Toshiba
	Tiffany Boone	Mimi
	Dane Cook	Principal Verge
	Sophia Zach	Round Teen Girl
	Yves Bright	Mr. Kendall

Crew View all

Director	Joseph Kahn
Writer	Joseph Kahn, Mark Palermo
Producer	Robert Abramoff, Nicole Ehrlich, Josh Hutcherson, David Kang, Jennifer Krobot, Mark Palermo, Clayton Reaser, Vernon Reaser, Justin Smith, Mary Ann Tanedo, Greg Tharp, Richard Weager
Musician	Charles Bernstein, Brain Mantia, Melissa Reese
Photography	Christopher Probst

Trailer

Edition details

Personal

Notes

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 trying to be everything at once, Detention becomes something you’ve never quite 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.

Tags

Links