After School
Netherlands | Dutch, English subtitles
2025 | 101 Minutes
Director: Merijn Scholte Albers, Tobias Smeets
Cast: Rutger De Bekker, Raymonde De Kuyper,
Kylian De Pagter, Sezgin Güleç, Daniël Kolf,
Estefanio Pinas, Noëlle Simson, Yannick Van de Velde,
Yari Van der Linden, Ruben Van der Meer
After School, or Straf as it is called in Dutch, is a crass new comedy made by Merijn Scholte Albers and Tobias Smeets who are best know for overdubbing video clips on their youtube channel.
While social media influencers of any type, that branch out into other areas is nearly always a red flag for me – a fun horror film that premiered at Fantasia festival a few years urged me to give these type of things a fair chance. That film was Talk To Me, which ended up being one of the better films of that years festival edition. This though, wasn’t going to be a repeat performance.
See Also: Tunnels : Sun In The Dark at Fantasia Festival
Edwin is a perfectly decent guy—a loving father, devoted middle-school music teacher, and faithful friend. At least, that’s how Edwin sees himself. To everyone else, he’s a human pinata—a control freak to his teenage daughter, a pushover to his fellow teachers, and a target for ridicule and humiliation to his students.
He’s been passed over for a cherished Vice Principal job for his “stunning lack of authority” and now he has to contend with Bastiaan, a budding bully (and his principal’s nephew), who is out to make his life hell after Edwin loses his temper—on camera. Not making matters any better is Edwin’s only friend, Peter, the school’s gym teacher, whose sole advice is to fight fire with fire, which turns out to be a really, really bad idea. Edwin and Bastiaan’s not-so-private battle gets progressively worse, leading to even more debasement, petnapping, and police interrogation. If Edwin ever needed to show assertiveness and finally take charge, it’s now or never, because if he doesn’t, school is going to be out for him for good.
Things sure have changed since I was a kid, in Holland anyway, and I suspect its the same all over. Kids these days are… bastards. There’s no nice way to say it. Utter bastards. And therein lies the plot to our story. Imagine then, having to teach these degenerates!
This is a tale of a school bully that targets the staff in order to look like a bad ass in front of the other students. This is all caught of a phone camera, of course, as the zombified global populous that we are, glued to our phones all the time, and that leads to a revenge plot. A really stupid one. So, the bullied teacher, his teacher buddy and an intern plan to kidnap the bullies dog.
That sparks more hijinks, which triggers hijinks which involves drug dealers and everyone gets high and the whole plot unravels and goes exactly where you think its going to go. Again, there were a few good ideas throughout the film but those were few and far between. Ideas, like the stolen car, were rushed and felt like a forgotten idea that gets badly tied in at the films conclusion. Other loose ends are abandoned too, and one brought back to open the door to a sequel – god help us.
Early on, I found myself rapidly growing annoyed with the juvenile antics and overall shitty behavior displayed by the teens in this film, and while that does subside a little as the film progresses, I had a tough time finding enjoyment in After School. Yes, granted, there were a few moments that were genuinely funny – but the majority of the dick jokes and toilet humor left me bored.
Its theme is one that has been done many times over. Some jerk is bullying others and we find out its because he’s getting bullied himself or having a hard time making friends, and eventually the bullied ones do something nice to the bully and they all have lemonade and become the best of pals.
Read More:
>> Hundreds Of Beavers at Fantasia Festival
>> Baby Assassins 2 at Fantasia Festival
>> Talk To Me at Fantasia Festival
This is a run of the mill bargain bin type flick that you’d find in a Blockbuster, back when we had Blockbusters, heavily discounted and for good reason. Only, this one is in Dutch.
If you’re craving some seriously low-brow comedy ripe with dick jokes then have at ‘er.
