English teacher Mr Gale snaps and take revenge on the wayward yobs that torment him in class. This starts off as a reasonably interesting coming of age drama before suddenly plunging into torture porn. Sadly this is where it all goes downhill for the next hour or so. Yes, there is some gore, but it's certainly no Hostel. The problem is that the film tries to be smart, having the psychotic Mr Gale question his victims on the English dictionary & literature, and what it all means. This just seems to go on for ever & the temptation to hit the FFWD button was great! Could've have been better, certainly has a running time that is way too long. Apparently this British film had a budget of £5,700.000 but looks like one with a couple of noughts less. Disappointing & boring.

THE LESSON is another cheap British horror film with no voice of its own. It feels very much like the writer/director watched WOLF CREEK 2 and decided to make their own rip-off version of the story. The protagonists are a pair of despicable students who make the lives of everyone around them a misery, before one of their stressed-out teachers abducts them and subjects them to a lesson they'll never forget. Yes, it's another grubby torture porn movie lacking in vision and scope, with a small cast overacting for all their worth. The film delves into philosophy and themes of the education process, but offers little insight other than the most obvious conclusions. I found it a chore.

The film centers on Finley (Evan Bendall) a student who lives in a flat with his older brother Jake (Tom Cox) and his hot Eastern European girlfriend Mia (Michaela Prchalová). Jake is on the brutish side and Mia has taken a shine to Fin. Fin is a disruptive student and has frequent mother flashbacks. He hangs out with a couple of other trouble makers. We get 30 minutes of character build-up until a teacher decides to abduct two boys (part of the official film description) and forces them to learn while restrained and at the threat of a nail gun.

The film was on the boring side. If you are really into British literature themes and allegories, ie. Dickens, Hobbs, Golding, Orwell etc. and watching kids suffer, this is your film. Now I imagine there are a lot of frustrated teachers who could really get into this production, however, I am not one of them. The nearly hour long instruction started to grow boring and I began to look for the allegory in this film, attempting to place the characters into societal stereo-types/molds, but was unable to do so, failing to grasp the cleverness others saw in this feature, perhaps due to my own lack of classical literature education...although admittedly I had read nearly everything mentioned except for that London chartered street thing and Brontë because real Brits don't have umlauts.

Guide: F-word. No nudity. Implied sex.