And here is a report on KILLING MRS. TINGLE, which will be Kevin's first film to direct, beginning next March or so. He has just rewritten it, so most likely it has changed radically since the original draft! Sounds cool, there are SPOILERS so don't read if you don't want to know, and if you do read there is nothing about who lives and who dies. So enjoy what the Frog belched this time...
Budweiser Frog here, i'm not sure where i read it, but i thought K. Williamson said this would be a "body snatchers" type movie, oh well, it's not. And not really a horror movie, but extremely enjoyable nonetheless. (warning:the script i got said first revised draft 1995, and revisions by George Huang, but it definitely reads like Williamson, so i think we’re safe)
Kevin Williamson’s Killing Mrs. Tingle opens on an intense tribal ceremony. The entire tribe chants and dances around a YOUNG GIRL, as a voiceover tells us “When a young girl reaches the age of 13 in the Mbotogote Tribe, the elders band together for a time-honored ceremony.With sharpened bone, the ears, lips, and tongue of the Young Girl are pierced. Her front teeth are filed off. ANd it is through this ceremony of pain, that the Young Girl finally becomes a woman.”
This segment is Killing Mrs. Tingle in a nutshell, after the ceremony, we see the YOUNG GIRL giving this tribal presentation before her shcool. Immediatley we understand what she was talking about. “if the child can tolerate these tests of pain... only then does the child finally become an adult.” The young girl, named Leigh Ann Warren, who is runner up for valedictorian, attends the most CUTTHROAT school ever seen. Kingston Falls High-School’s halls are drab with “knowledge is power” posters lining every wall. But the real terror is named Mrs. Tingle.
Wearing “A Pair of Sensible Shoes” which are white and orthopedic, Mrs. Tingle embodies every cruel remark and punishment ever contained inside a teacher. When not slapping or throwing rulers at people, she plays Neil Diamond songs as a special torture. When responding to the mass of teachers letting the seniors skip their final, she says “ this is not the Make-a-wish foundation this is school.” And cheating is the unexusable, undeniable, unkillable pet peeve of Mrs. Tingle. A Tingle response to a history project is” Thank you, Miss Presscott(Sidney?), for that nauseating distortion of American History. YOur Complete desregard for reality is surpassed only by your lack of talent as an actress. Take a seat.” The students obey submissively, as well as the principal, to Mrs. Tingle’s disturbing habits.
When all the students grades and college plans are threatened by Tingle’s bitchiness and false accusations, four kids, including Leigh Ann, go to Tingle’s house to “talk” to her. When all goes wrong, and Tingle shoots an insult at the wrong kid, they take her hostage and tie her up. As in I Know What You Did Last Summer, the kids talk about doing the “smart” thing, and not the “right” thing. The kids plans are to degrade Mrs. Tingle’s character until she is fired from the school, while switching off who gets to watch her.
As the class at school begins to watch Nazi and child molestation videos in Mrs. Tingle’s absence, she screws with the minds of whoever is watching her, causing paranoia and distrust among the kids.
Killing Mrs. Tingle does not travel the same road as Scream, Scream2, or I Know What You Did Last Summer, although there are still scenes with people grabbing for butcher knives, and there is still a twist ending, but Kevin Williamson has presented a disturbing look at the teacher/student relationship. He argues they haven’t the right, to do anything but talking about Math and English.
Extremely enjoyable, and frighteningly funny, Mrs. Tingle is the best representation of high school since the Breakfast Club.
