Graduation Day (1981)

You won't be disappointed!

Absolutely Fantastic

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

After being pushed hard by her demanding track coach (George), Laura Ramstead (Ruth Ann Llorens) collapses and dies on the high school track. Her boyfriend Kevin (Murphy) is in shock from it, and soon a black gloved killer starts picking off other track team members in typical Slasher movie fashion. Is it the grieving Kevin, the demanding Coach or the loopy Principal (Pataki)? Laura's older sister Anne (MacKenzie) has returned home to be right in the middle of it. There are a few inspired deaths like when a pole vaulting victim landing on some spikes in the matte below, and one girl stabbed through the neck while jogging. Most of the time Graduation Day is displaying terrible acting, practically no script and way too many scenes involving cast members singing along to a bad songs! Director Herb Freed, who also co-wrote this did what many low budget film makers did in the early 1980's and cash in on the success of "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th". With no suspense, atmosphere or timing bad examples like this movie is what quickly killed the Slasher film by the end of the decade.

This is one of the worst slashers of the early 1980s. All the kills were generic and poorly done, not one good special effect at all! Not one scary moment in the whole movie! For a slasher, its mostly shot during the day, except for one night scene which mostly consisted one of the worst/annoying songs I ever heard. Even the soundtrack stinks!I understand these movies will contain some stupidity/cheese, but there's nothing intelligent here at all. You have track team members getting killed one by one, but no one seems to miss them. They get killed on heavy foot traffic paths in the woods, yet no one discovers the bodies. Dim witted officers/security guards. There's a scene showing the graduates in the gowns on the grass. Then it cuts to a track member practicing his pole vault. Really? On his graduation? The killer is a doofus and unscary. He looks like a 40 year old high school senior. The fight scenes are Ed Wood like. Christopher George and the killer, killer and lead actress in the end fight scenes are shot in real time, but look like slow-motion. I love how the lead actress not only runs from the killers house thru the neighborhood not finding one person to get help, she decides to run across the football field and under the bleachers which coincidentally has many of the dead bodies hidden. I would think that would stink real bad.Not much effort was put in this film and it earns its one rating. Oh yeah, for as much time we spend in the high school, we only see one teacher, the dorky music teacher(snooze). The only part in this film that was hilarious was with Christopher George coaching a student in gymnastics. When she was doing her routine, George's expressions on his face appeared like he was turned on and lusting after her. Just hilarious and I'm sure unintentional.I love slashers and I know people who just have to see them all. Trust me, your not missing anything by avoiding it.

I used to be a huge Slasher fan. I still am to a certain extent. I still check out old slasher's from the 80's as I am entertained by some of them. The original Halloween is my favorite of all time; I dig the original F13th film and some of its sequels, so I'm not all that picky. I found this one on You Tube… needless to say it was pretty bad. The cheese factor is certainly here and there are moments of enjoyment to be had; not many of them, but it wasn't void of them, but that's probably the only compliment I can give it. Like most slasher's from the 80's. It is done in by its derivative nature and of course the terrible acting. It doesn't offer much suspense, and the deaths are mostly bloodless and uninspired. The opening wasn't that bad. A track runner plummeting to her death was rather decent, but it made the killer much too obvious in the long run. The killer himself is rather bland as well. A sweat suit and a fence mask? That would make me shake in my boots for sure. We have some familiar faces in the cast. Genre favorite Christopher George plays a moody sports coach…what a shock! Other notable actors such as Michael Pataki (Rocky IV) and the lovely Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune are in it as well. I almost forgot. I did like the ending. It got me there for a moment, which is something I wasn't expecting…Final Thoughts: Know what you're getting with this one. A lot of bad acting, a rip off Friday the 13th, and uninspired death scenes. If you like a little bit of cheese, but cheese that lacks suspense and the overall fun factor, this is probably for you. I'd skip it as I said in the summary3.5/10

This film is brought to you by Troma Team Video Distribution Company which is a part of Troma Entertainment. They have been responsible for releasing B-rated pictures since the mid-1970's under its founders Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz. Troma has shared in the success of several underground features; 1984's The Toxic Avenger stands as their most recognizable work. Tromeo and Juliet from 1996 and '93's Cannibal! The Musical should also receive a mention as far as popularity is concerned.This film tells the story of a high school senior, Laura, who dies of a heart attack following the events of a 30-second 100-meter dash. Laura's death causes her sister, Anne, to return home from the Navy as a set of grisly murders occur among a group of clowny high-schoolers.Viewers can expect the usual cast of losers to appear...almost like film producers meet in a dark alley to swap actors and actresses enabling a healthy rotation of amateurism. In the far out reaches of your expectations Vanna White fills a role in Graduation Day - due to the common age range of most of my readers, White doesn't need much of an introduction. If you're still drawing a blank, she was the "letter turner" on Wheel of Fortune. She is also the niece of famed actor Christopher George (he also appeared in Mortuary) who plays a role in this film as well. In addition, Linnea Quigley was added to the group as the whorish archetype that she willingly embraced in many of her earlier horror movies. Quigley is a cult icon in the genre and most notably portrayed "Trash" in 1985's Return of the Living Dead - other works include Silent Night, Deadly Night, Creepozoids (I would have had a field day with that film if I was writing reviews back then), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Night of the Demons, and Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings.Much to my surprise the creators of Graduation Day managed to cast young-looking individuals to portray high school students. There is one exception to this and it concerns Laura's boyfriend Kevin who appears to be over 30. Unfortunately I cannot find proper documentation to state how old he was in 1981 but passing him off as someone in their late teens was a ridiculous stretch. The woman responsible for the special effects makeup, Jill Rockow, would advance her career by branching out to films like Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Silver Bullet, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3, and the Star Trek remake that was released in 2009. Rockow's achievements in Graduation Day are text-book, novice level achievements and won't frighten or impress the majority of viewers.The use of false leads in this film run off into the countryside with the remaining sensibility you were desperately clutching onto. Everything from the principle having a knife collection in his top drawer, the head Track coach that people blame for Laura's death, the annoyed persona of Anne, to the heckled police officer who frequents the school grounds; no one is safe from the accusatory index finger, not even the bees who spread pollen from one flower to another.The killer in question is armed with a fencing sword and dons a sweat suit and netted mask, fumbling around with a stop watch before and after the murders. I don't find such a silly image too far out of the ball park but why do characters who are caught off guard by the killer's presence always try to act reasonably? An anonymous brigand is lurking around in the hedges and the only thing that you can insist upon is how mannerly you come across? What a half-witted decision that is. How daft! Let's not allow this small facet to overshadow the simplemindedness involved when allowing oneself to stand motionlessly while the killer performs his/her preferred method of execution on your person. I've always refused to suspense my disbelief in this department; the act of "letting" someone kill you is preposterous and isn't functional on any level. Far be it for me to rain on the Slasher parade, though, as the sub-genre is littered with unrealistic bits like this o' plenty.Bandwagon-jumpers of the 1980's all rushed to throw your average, ordinary high school and college students into the clutches of danger. The vast number of them seems staggering – the only way to properly catalog them all is to keep a list or have an amazing memory. I've seen so many titles that resort to this formula and shake my head in disappointment when I realize that I'm not out of the woods yet. Graduation Day, like many of its breed, simply "exists" just for the sake of being there…the look of the film itself even appears dated and I cannot think of one single element that stands above the rest. For us completists, the obsessive fanatics that we are, we may find it appealing that Linnea Quigley plays a role…but even this tidbit can go either way considering some of the doozies she's been in.