Detention, which opens in theaters on Friday, April 13th, is described in promotions as a horror-comedy featuring a group of high school teens stuck in detention and being hunted down by a serial killer named Cinderhella.” But once you see the film, you discover that theres a lot more going on including pop culture parody, time travel parody, teen drama parody, and a lot more. So are horror fans going to get what they were looking for in Detention?
Kahn tells us, Its a tricky thing because I dont think that I want it ultimately to appeal to just one crowd. This film definitely is framed by horror, like the main plot line is about a serial killer, so thats our through line. So it can legitimately be called at least a comedy horror film. Joseph continues, Im not trying to appeal to the hardcore horror fans. They have their movies and they have their niche. This is for the horror fan that also likes Back to the Future. That also appreciates Cant Buy Me Love. That also appreciates [The] Breakfast Club. Its that segment that appreciates the other aspects of the wealth of cinema there is .thats who Im appealing to.
That being said, Detention has its own iconic serial killer with Cinderhella. It sounded like a funny name, Kahn tells us. I thought it would be really funny if she had plastic surgery gone bad. Shes a prom queen. She has bandages around her face. It came out like an iconic looking character. Theres two versions of Cinderhella. Theres the one thats in the movie within the movie, and theres the serial killer mask that someones wearing trying to off the students. But then if you look at the greater story of my main character Riley, she is living in a Cinderella story. In the beginning of the movie, she is down and out in her look, everyone looks at her and shes basically Cinderella without the shoe. In fact, she loses her shoe at some point. And now she gains her shoe back by her Prince Charming, so that Cinderhella is both a slasher killer and a metaphor for her life.
Joseph Kahn grew up in Houston, TX which is home base for our brother site ComingSoon.Net. After graduating high school in 1990, he went on to direct music videos for Eminem, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, The Black Eyed Peas, U2, Aerosmith, and many more. Its his connection to the music industry that let him stay in touch with todays youth while keeping his other foot firmly planted in the 90s pop culture that his film parodies.
Kahn says, Im kind of tricky for an old guy. Im a 40 year old guy thats in tune with young kids pop culture because I hear all the music before they do because I sell it to them. So Im still aware of how people dress, Im still aware of things they say. So when I made this movie, if Im going to be honest to the audience and myself as a filmmaker, its gonna be two levels. Its gonna be all the all the knowledge of everything that happened before today and all the knowledge of whats happening now. So the final result is a movie that can be watched two ways. If youre older, you can go, Oh, look at all those nice 90s references. And if youre younger, Look at those weird ’90s references, but still theres all this great stuff that I know about now. Its kind of like a movie made for two generations.
Josephs focus is now on writing his next film and promoting Detention. And in true independent film spirit, hes putting a lot on the line to make this movie happen. Kahn declares, I just want to make movies when I absolutely feel passionate about it. And Ill throw my own money into it, risk complete financial failure, but its very important that each one of my movies I do are absolutely 100% something I can believe in. And I do believe that with this film.
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