This is a not very well developed SyFy film with Danny Trejo as a good guy. A coin dropped in the boiler room of a high school opens a portal to another dimension bringing forth the mass murdering grandfather of one of the students.

The killer and his demoness sidekick are not well developed either. He recites corny lines as a Freddie imitator, although not nearly as cool. This is a PG-13 slasher film for the kids. Adults will be bored.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex or nudity. Use of "b" word. Girls in school uniforms, but D.E.B.S. is better for that.

The ghost of a previous headmaster returns to wreak havoc and treat people to bad puns in a fairly poor haunted high school offering.

I was attracted by Danny Trejo and Charisma Carpenter headlining the DVD box in Poundland. Well Danny Trejo spends much of the film locked in a cupboard and Charisma Carpenter is barely in it. And the UK DVD box doesn't feature the dreaded words "SyFy Channel."

The cast is OK, mostly, the script is poor, and the horror is too explicit for non-horror audiences, but far too lame for hardcore horror fans.

Woof! This dog barks. Danforth (MC Gainey, who has a grand ole time) has been resurrected by a pentagram old coin dropped on the basement of a private school by his ancestor, Quentin (Jonathan Baron),thanks to his obsessive literary teacher, Myers (Ricky Wayne). Soon there's a pentagram forming on the basement floor which unearths Danforth and his head demon. The kids and faculty still in the school are fodder for Danforth to destroy through his supernatural black magic. "Haunted High" offers Syfy the chance to further diminish their value (if that was humanly possible at this point) in terms of quality in films produced for the viewing audience. Major hurdle not overcome is that the basis of all Danforth's witchcraft in "imaginatively" killing folks is that the violence suggested is just too brutal for the television audience watching. That and it helps to keep cost down if you don't see arms and legs pulled apart by weight wires at a workout bench or a head explosion from an amplified screech in the showers. There are ideas that allow those involved in the Danforth murders to go crazy such as gym shirts that levitate and fly towards a victim, a diva pulled into a commode, a musical instrument used to kill a member of the band, the foldable bleachers used to crush the music teacher, dissected frogs attacking faculty, a trophy case literally encasing the principal, and a defibrillator used to shock the teacher head of the prom committee. Quentin must somehow conquer his ancestor's power even after being invaded by his dark spirit. Acid on the bones and their demonic rings might just diffuse the strong evil presence of Danforth and his demon. The end has Danny Trejo (as the high school janitor),Quentin, and Quentin's potential girlfriend, Whitney (Lauren Pennington),descending into the basement to do battle with Danforth and his demon.

Marc Donato will be recognizable for his long-time role on Degrassi, laughably cast as an intimidating thug scaring the much larger (and whiny to the point that I was almost about to lobotomize myself so I wouldn't have to hear him anymore) Shawn Phillips, while Charisma Carpenter got a really easy paycheck as a librarian who is dispatched by Danforth's demon in like one minute…she might say three or four word, tops! Trejo, despite the name value, is stuck in the janitor closet trying to get out for probably half an hour! His spirit fighting Gainey's spirit at the end while Quentin tries to be rid of his grandpa's evil is the icing on the cake…it pretty much explains everything about how off-the-rails cheesy this film is. Love Trejo when a film plays to his strengths, but all the special lighting effects with the bolts from Gainey purposed to destroy him in the basement isn't exactly what I consider a showcase of his talents! Give him a rocket launcher and suit him in a leather vest and let him blow away biker scum…not mopping floors, reading from a book of spells, mourning over his dear love who returns as a type of spirit (although she doesn't speak),stuck in a locked room where he exhaustively bangs on the door seemingly forever, and getting waylaid by green bolts of spiritual lighting. Phillips, if I must mention him again, is a ghost hunting fan and expert hacker who nearly pees his pants at Donato… this alone gives the film a level of ridiculousness it lives in like a pair of pajamas. The quips Gainey delivers with his maniacal laugh is right out of the school of the Freddy Krueger class, but the violence and effects don't compare to what Nightmare on Elm Street was doing to class room kids back in the day. The characters aren't particularly distinguished, presented as meat for the grinder. At least they are split up and separated by Gainey's powers and not due to stupidity. See this at your own peril