ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.
Official synopsis: A meek teacher faces rejection from family and colleagues. After his boss denies him a promotion due to his weak personality, he seeks help from a crude gym teacher whose advice leads to chaos.
Review: The teen antagonist in the comedy After School (Straf; The Netherlands, 2026) is the kind of cinematic villain who you can’t wait to see get his, but the main protagonists aren’t doing themselves any favors toward his comeuppance as they make one poor decision after another.
Codirectors Merijin Scholte Albers and Topias Smeets, who cowrote the screenplay with Caspar Smeets, deliver a high-school–set revenge comedy that may not offer much in the originality department but that is entertaining and amusing throughout. Music teacher Edwin (Rutger de Bekker) is not respected by his students, who make him the butt of their online video jokes, and he doesn’t have much going for him in his work, social, and family lives, either. When he takes his frustration with new student Bastiaan (Kylian de Pagter-Colin) too far, his job is one viral video away from being fired, as the student — whose aunt is conveniently the school principal — well knows. When gym teacher Peter (Ruben van der Meer) offers to help Edwin out, matters only escalate for both men.
Edwin and Peter aren’t the easiest protagonists for whom to root, but Edwin’s relationship with his daughter Bobbie (Noelle Simson) — also a student at the school — shows an endearing side, and a certain reveal makes Peter a softer character.
Albers and Topias Smeets balance the cringe, cruelty, and craziness quite well, making After School an overall likable watch.
After School screened as part of Fantasia 2026, which ran July 16–August 2 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
