Above is a poster for Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei, aka Terrifying Girls’ High School: Animal Courage, fourth and final entry in the Terrifying franchise, with Reiko Ike, Ryôko Ema, Natsuko Yashiro, and others. The plot here is simple: the Seiwa Private School accepts troubled girls, turns them into exemplary students, and sends them to study abroad. Reiko is a new transfer to the school, but it soon becomes clear that she’s there for more than academics. She’s actually looking for her missing older sister, a former student at Seiwa. Needless to say she’s going to be pretty well cheesed off by what she discovers.
Before she gets to the bottom of the mystery she has to deal with complications involving a lesbian gang, but eventually gets to face down evil plotters. Obviously, that brief description alone hints that there’s a formula underpinning these high school delinquent movies, but they often manage to entertain even when they don’t cover any new ground, and the plot surprises aren’t really surprises at all. Gasp! A group of bad older men are really behind everything! Kyôfu joshi kôkô: Animal dôkyôsei is generally considered a weaker entry in Terrifying series, but it’s worth a look if you can locate it. It premiered in Tokyo today, 1973.
