GraduationDay

Graduation Day (1981)

The movie opens up at a high school track meet. We see a young girl being pushed on by her coach and teammates to win a race, which she does. But as she crosses the finish line she drops dead of a heart attack. After this tragedy some one runs around in a tracksuit and a fencing mask killing off the members of the track team. Is it the girl’s sister returned from the Navy for the funeral? Or perhaps the creepy music teacher, or the overbearing track coach? Heck it might even be the obsessive boyfriend! It really doesn’t matter who it is, only that the bodies are starting to pile up and it could ruin graduation.

This is a strange movie. I’ve seen way too many fans rip this one up and say that it is one of the worst slasher movies they have seen. I’ve also seen some fans that love this and think that it is a great movie. I honestly think that it is somewhere in between. The story leaves a lot to be desired. You get the basics of a slasher movie with the premature death acting as a catalyst for the killings. But in spite of giving the audience several suspects to choose from it also does a terrible job hiding who the killer is. Not only that but they reveal it way too early which spoils some of the potential fun. Another disadvantage with knowing who the killer is early on is that it makes the other suspects less interesting when they are on screen. Toss in some overly comedic characters that really don’t fit in a movie that is trying to be serious (think the music teacher) and some awful dialogue (the sisters exchange early on with the girl in the woods) that adds to the pacing issues. I found parts of this movie to be boring.

But as bad as the story is the movie does deliver some of the goods. We see some good nudity, including the great Linnea Quigley. For some added fun we get to see a very young Vanna White try to deliver some dialogue as an actress! Most of the kills are interesting including some fun with a fencing blade. The movie has a decent body count with the action picking up speed as the movie enters the last 30 minutes. And one of my favorite actors Christopher George (Pieces) is in it! So while the story isn’t very good and failed to keep me interested there were enough other things going right to keep my attention until the end. That said I really wouldn’t want to have to sit thru it again. Because of it’s issues the movie has zero rewatchability value.

In the end Graduation Day is at best a mediocre slasher flick that will only hold interest to the diehard fans of that subgenre. If that is you then I recommend a rental, otherwise you should skip it.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer