(1983, LT Films)

Kevin Markson, the psycho pupil, moves on to Diefenbaker High School to kill more students.
Kevin is haunted by the guilt from killing his family. Can this be enough to stop him?

Running Length - 37:20

Number of victims: 8

Kevin Markson played by: Lafe Travis/Rusty Nelson/Jim Anderson

  
Map of "My School" -- John G. Diefenbaker High

Production Details

My School III was shot when I was in grade nine. My friends and I had moved onto a different school, and had a whole new environment in which to make films. The library had a video camera available for our use. I was quick to join Diefenbaker's version of the media club so I could sign out the equipment. It was one of those bulkier units with a seperate camera and VCR. The recording went directly onto VHS. Unfortunately there were no editing facilities, so we had to shoot the movie sequentially the way we wanted it. We made up the story as we went along. There was a wonderful killing in the elevator shaft and a bloody death in the boy's shower room. Kevin had the mask of a mime, which didn't quite fit. But that was just a warm-up -- we erased the footage purposefully (a shame!) and decided to start with a fresh storyline.

It was the age of video and everybody it seemed was getting into the home video craze. My friend Jim Anderson's father had bought a video camera, so we decided to shoot some scenes out of the school for a change. We continued the plot from My School II with Kevin's brother Lafe at home, getting ready to go to school on the first day. He had recovered from his injuries of the last film and was ready to make a new start at a new school. Kevin enters the house and slashes Lafe's throat. Lafe's friend Jim comes by the house to pick him up, but instead finds Lafe dead, and a Kevin waiting with a sharp knife. Jim is shocked to find Lafe's cut-off head in the kitchen sink (a styrofoam wig head with ketchup smeared all over it) and faints. Kevin mistakes Jim for dead (he'll be back in My School IV) and goes off to the new school to kill the students there.

At the school, there is an excellent hanging death over the railing of a stairwell, a brutal math textbook beating on someone's head. and an arrow shot into a person's mouth, which didn't work that well. Kevin almost kills a student named Jeff Kushner, but Jeff gets away (to be killed in a later My School film). The climax of the movie involves a chase. Kevin pursues his final victim through the halls of the school, and eventually crushes him between two bookshelves in the library. The film ends with Kevin jumping to his death from the top of the stairwell. This is clearly not a suicidal action, but rather a way to destroy the evidence. Kevin's body vanishes at the end of the film.

My School III is the first attempt to probe Kevin's psyche and motivation. We attempt to explain why Kevin kills people in a lenghty monologue at the center portion of the film. Many of Kevin's famous one-liners have come from this. Essentially, there is a lot of jealousy and anger over other students' achievements. Kevin describes himself as always getting "the dirty end of the stick". It becomes known here that Kevin's mother has passed away (in later My School films, we'd find out that Kevin killed his mother!). She is one personality of Kevin's multiple identities, and scolds him for all of his evil actions. She is the one who encourages him to take the leap over the railing at the end off My School III.

Shortly after its initial release, my friends took the film/video and showed it to their language arts class without my permission. The teacher asked every student in the class to write a critique of my film. Most of them were downright negative -- that's grade nine students for you! I almost died of embarrassment when I was given the handwritten piles of written critiques. They particularly did not like the way that Kevin killed people for their achievments. A week after the bad feelings, anger and shame had faded, I was more encouraged than ever to do the next My School film, and improve upon things that failed. I learned that younger people watch horror films for the violence and action, and not for deep psychological explorations. I took down some notes for what could be done to make My School IV better.

We shot several minutes of new video material in 1987, but nothing considerable. There are some school exterior shots, which show Kevin entering and exiting. The credits and music were redone too. The original opening titles had cardboard signs with blood being poured down over the lettering. My School III is a bit of a snoozer film. There are scenes even I fast-forward through. The parts I really like is the killing of Kevin's brother, the hanging death and the ending chase with the nerd.