A knife-wielding maniac plots his exploits off of a popular slasher film. If you were to call out Joseph Kahn for unabashedly ripping this plot straight from Scream 2, he'd probably take it as a compliment. In fact, the Detention writer/director mentions the Wes Craven franchise by name, repeatedly, alongside a heap of other references from which this dizzyingly self-referential horror parody is composed. A cast of mismatched high school students (led by Shanley Caswell and Josh Hutcherson) must contend with a serial killer while balancing the banality of Saturday detention and the plausibility of time travel. Sort of like The Breakfast Club meets Donnie Darko, except without a hint of subtlety. At one point, towards the film's end, the "misunderstood dweeb" character even makes a reference to post-irony, with his tongue planted firmly in cheek. Make that sloppy and silly post-irony.
