Fantasia 2025: ‘The School Duel’ Movie Review – It’s The Guns

My kids never experienced a school shooting, but one year, there was a credible threat of a weapon at their high school. My youngest caught wind of the danger and left before the school went on lockdown, walking a couple of miles home because they had no intention of dying at school. They got in trouble with the school, but not at home, because honestly, I agreed with their decision. In Todd Wiseman Jr.’s The School Duel, which recently had its premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival, he takes the problem of school shootings and imagines something only slightly more dystopian than what is already happening in America.

The film takes place in the near future in the state of Florida. School shootings are the norm, and to help stem the tide a bit, Florida Governor Anthony ‘The Ram’ Ramiro (Oscar Nuñez) has created The School Duel, a televised event where representatives from various schools across the state go into an arena together with several types of guns. They eliminate one another, with those being shot and killed being called martyrs, and the victor will be crowned the king.

While the story suggests that the students who participate are volunteers, they are instead hand-selected either as kids who have an All-American vibe to them or, more often, seem to pose a likely threat as a school shooter. Samuel Miller (Kue Lawrence) appears to be the latter, consuming hours of online content in what would be classified as the manosphere – creators who push a masculinity that is obsessed with guns and the subjugation of women. This is apparent when we see him speak with his mother Beth (Christina Brucato).

The School Duel creates an incredible amount of tension in a field that is already somewhat crowded by other stories of children being sacrificed to the insatiable American appetite for “freedom.” While some aspects of it play out in the way that you might expect, there are definitely surprises along the way that keep this from feeling stale or predictable.

One of the things that adds to the tension is Wiseman’s decision to shoot almost the entire film in black and white. While there is something visceral about seeing blood in color, the black and white element allows this film to feel somewhat cold and detached in the midst of the incredible violence. As we watch Samuel move from a kid who mostly hides in the first round to someone making and breaking alliances as the event moves forward, we see him become cold to what is happening, and that is amplified by the lack of color on the screen.

The performances throughout The School Duel are generally well done. Brucato is particularly impressive as Samuel’s mother, being forced to watch the event on television by armed guards. Her anguish is palpable as we see her struggle to accept that her underage son made this decision behind her back and is now at risk of dying in this cruel game. Nuñez also brings an incredible amount of personality to his role, and while the Governor is not a comedic character, you can see how Nuñez’s comedic roots help make the character much larger than life.

However, the story hinges on Lawrence as Samuel, and he gives a phenomenal performance in that role. The transformation over the course of the film is so impressive as he starts as a kid being bullied by his peers, to a kid with so much swagger that it’s hard to imagine him as anything other than a serious contender in the games.

One of the things that sets The School Duel apart from other dystopian stories about children killing each other is the low budget. When you think about something like The Hunger Games, the spectacle of it all can almost make the slaughter entertaining, even to us as we watch. In this movie, everything but the guns feels cobbled together. To announce each round, there is a cheaply made wheel with the different kinds of weapons on it, and after it is spun, a group of girls performs a cheer based on the type of gun that it lands on. It all feels lo-fi, and that actually makes the entire thing feel far more brutal and upsetting. These kids are only given the best when it comes to the weapons they use to kill each other.

There are times when I wonder if we really need another movie where adults are not merely willing to allow kids to die by gun violence, but actively encourage it. Then I think about my kid getting in trouble for walking away from school when they were afraid that they could be shot in their classroom, and I think that maybe we need a lot more movies like The School Duel.