The vision of Roger Corman as the executive producer and the talents of director Allan Arkush (from the “Corman School” of filmmaking — Deathsport in 1978), filmmaker Joe Dante (a longtime associate and writing partner of Arkush … who handled some of the directing to keep the film on-budget and on-time) and a dream cast that includes “Corman School” film talents Paul Bartel and his filmmaking cohort, Mary Woronov — genius, pure genius having these two in the cast.
But it doesn’t end there … other Dante/Arkush/Corman members of the cast include Dick Miller and Clint Howard, plus the star of the show, who was on a roll (pun intended) with scene-stealing performances in both Carrie and Halloween, P. J. Soles.
This Corman production didn’t start out as a rock ‘n roll musical, but rather something along the lines of a cheerleader movie that Dante and Arkush had sketched out. However, according to trade reports and other sources, the film underwent as many five re-writes before finally reaching its final form.
Bonus goodies include (and this must be a record) five different commentary options. There are four archival commentaries that have been produced over the years … these are: Arkush with producer Mike Finnell (The Howling, Gremlins) and re-write screenwriter Richard Whitley; Arkush with actors P.J. Soles and Clint Howard; Whitley with his co-writer Russ Dvonch and the late Roger Corman with actor Dey Young (in her film debut).
Additional bonus goodies can found on one of the companion Blu-ray discs … these include a new video session with Ramones drummer, Marky Ramone, vintage video session with Corman (conduced by Leonard Maltin) and Arkush, audio outtakes, a vintage intro by Arkush and a trio of featurettes — “Class of ’79: 40 Years of Rock ‘n Roll High School,” “Back to School: A Retrospective” and “Staying After Class.”
