Plot: Fin (Evan Bendall) doesn’t have much of a home life, between his oafish older brother and Mia (Michaela Prchaldva), who he pines for. Of course, Mia is his brother’s girlfriend, though she does look after Fin, so he knows she cares at least. Out of his house, he runs with a group of trouble makers that never cease to stir up chaos. The ring leader is Joel (Rory Coltart), who leads his group of pals around town to harass women, destroy other people’s property, and other such fun activities. Even at school the group doesn’t tone down their antics, especially in the class of Mr. Gale (Robert Hands). Mr. Gale has been a teacher for decades and is worn down from years of uninterested students, so he was already close to the brink. But when Fin, Joel, and the others become aggressive toward the teacher, it sparks a darkness inside Mr. Gale. The teens leave class and assume they’re untouchable, but later on Fin and Joel are attacked. When Fin wakes up, he is chained to a desk and Mr. Gale is holding a special class. Can Fin survive this lesson or Mr. Gale take education to a whole new level?

Entertainment Value: I don’t know for sure, but I have to think the social commentary in The Lesson is an elaborate ruse. After all, we have all read The Lord of the Flies and know the basics of human nature, but The Lesson seems to want us to think what we see is more than just diet torture porn. But we are given a douche for a “good guy” who is unlikable and has no real personality, while the “bad guy” seems to have at least come up with a plan to get his message across. When the movie focuses on tension and torture, it works and when it switches to morality play, it sinks. Just embrace the torture porn and make an entertaining, moral free movie, right? Or fine tune your social commentary so that it makes sense and or has some depth. The movie would have also made a better impression if it had ended on the natural high note. I wanted to like The Lesson and it isn’t that bad, but it fails to live up to the potential.

No nudity in this one, guys. But The Lesson is part philosophical masturbation and part torture porn, so yeah there’s some red stuff. Hammering nails through hands, cracking skulls with a hammer, nail gun mayhem, and even putting gum in a teacher’s hair, its all here. The carnage never happens in our direct view however, so we just see the spurts of blood or the aftermath of the violence. I suspect that was more of a budget issue, since visible gore effects run up costs, so I understand the decision. The dialogue is mostly pretentious, but star Robert Hands delivers it in such a manic performance you can’t help but stay interested. Hands elevates The Lesson far above where it would be without him, as his performance is just a lot of fun and seems quite authentic as a lunatic. On the crazy scale, it is wacky to kidnap and torture people and Hands’ performance is borderline psycho, but The Lesson never shifts into that area of total (or even half) madness.

Nudity: 0/10

Blood: 4/10

Dialogue: 2/10

Overall Insanity: 2/10

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