All American Bully was recently released to DVD and VOD. The title fits the narrative a lot more than the description and the cover art do:

Wild Eye Releasing has put a famous face to the ever-present topic of bullying in schools.  Adrienne King (Friday the 13th) makes a rare appearance on the screen as a tyrannical principal with a secret…Three friends try to cope after one of them is victimized by a bully, and their lives are slowly torn apart as the they fall deeper into a twisted web of buried secrets, ignorance, and revenge.  Through it all, Principal Kane (King) rules her small town high school with an iron fist, teaching harsh lessons to students and faculty alike.  The vicious cycle leads to a disturbing and violent conclusion where it turns out no one is truly innocent.

This is a prime example of where marketing has the potential to negatively impact the viewer’s experience. Despite being marketed to horror fans, All American Bully is more like an R-rated after school special than a traditional horror movie. That’s not to say it doesn’t get dark, but you should know right up front that you’re not exactly getting the movie you might be inclined to expect. You should also know that it has essentially a DIY-budget feel to it. I don’t say any of this to keep you from watching it, but they’re things worth knowing before deciding whether or not to take the plunge.

Now, none of this is a knock on the film itself. I actually found myself quite engaged throughout. The acting, for the most part, was better than expected, and plenty of time is dedicated to developing the characters to ensure that we do care about them. At least some of them. In fact, it’s those that aren’t developed enough that become the movie’s main flaw as it gets closer to its conclusion. Ironically, that includes the very character that the marketing has used as the film’s selling point.

I’m referring of course to the role played by Adrienne King. All American Bully has been marketed as a return to the screen for King, and it’s not hard to understand why. She’s the only well-known name in the cast and everybody loves her (myself included). Her performance in All American Bully is just as good as we would expect from her too, and I was happy to see that she was attached to a film with some level of integrity as we often see so-called horror icons appear in numerous embarrassments. The problem is that her part in the story feels entirely incomplete. It’s almost as if they ran out of time to finish her scenes and just finished the movie without some of them.

Scenes with King and related characters are fine, and seem to be part of the overall plot until the movie just kind of leaves that part of the story behind, and never bothers to give it any kind of resolution or connection to the larger story that the viewer is expecting.

Despite this flaw, there is enough going on with the other characters and the central story to have kept me interested until the end, and quite frankly, I’ve got to respect just about anything that manages to do that.

All American Bully is a multi-layered look at small town bullying, which is a never-ending plague to teenagers from generation to generation. It’s a familiar message, but one that resonates nevertheless. Despite some flaws and the aforementioned caveats, I’d say it’s worth a watch for those not expecting a blood-soaked chiller. That’s just not what All American Bully is.

This trailer gives you a better idea of what to expect:

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You can probably tell from that whether or not this movie is for you. Ignore the completely misleading cover art.