Graduation Day

Rating:
Summary: Below Graduating Level
Review: "Graduation Day" is a horrible horror film released in 1981 featuring Vanna White before "Wheel of Fortune". This film explores the life threating moments and mischief of the track team. A few months ago, one of their sprinters (Laura) was killed during a track match due to a disorder caused by overexercising. Now, somebody in that town is furious. He or she seeks rage by committing a chain of murders. Until the killer is revealed, he/ she will not stop until the rageful "needs" are met. Until then, everyone is a suspect.

Though its plot has some entertaining moments, most of it turns in unnecessary ways with turn of events. Therefore, many of its scenes don't relate to the overall main plot. These unnecessary events make the overall plot very slow moving. Granted, some of them create suspense. However, they could have been created in more useful styles. Certain frequently featured aspects are unoriginal, namely drug use and upper body nudity. Had the writers researched the subject matter more, the film may have resulted in better quality. Many of these actors often do not convince audiences that their characters feel as expressed. Many of them instead unintentually act intoxicated. Though the screaming is excellent, a great film requires more than that.

Those looking for a great horror film should not watch "Graduation Day". This film is sure to bore many audiences. Those people are instead recommended quality horror films "Halloween" (1978), "Psycho" (1960), and/ or "Scream" (1996).

Rating:
Summary: Interesting slasher fare
Review: "Graduation Day" is an obscure yet interesting little slasher film. The movie doesn't really offer anything we haven't seen a million times before, doesn't really do anything spectacular with its miniscule budget, but it is an enjoyable movie nonetheless. I was a bit surprised to see Troma--those purveyors of abysmal cinema--distributing the DVD version of the film. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since Lloyd Kaufman occasionally recognizes he must give the public something worthwhile to balance out the junk that constitutes the bulk of the Troma canon. "Graduation Day" came out in the early 1980s during that halcyon time when slasher films ruled the roost (and the box office) thanks to motion pictures like John Carpenter's "Halloween" and Sean Cunningham's "Friday the 13th." Most of the films attempting to cash in on the success of the splatter genre faded into obscurity. Thanks to the advent of DVD, we can now see both the good and the bad entries in this memorable cinematic movement. If that means we must turn our eyes to Troma to do so, then so be it.

"Graduation Day" starts with an opening sequence so cheesy, so horrifyingly awful to behold, that it almost made me turn the film off. Imagine, if you dare, the camera panning across your typical high school track and field event. Since the film takes place in that painful gray area between the late 1970s and early 1980s, most of the people we see look so geeky that even Bill Gates would have stigmatized them. Feathered coifs, lame T-shirts, lots of smiles caked in braces, and a background song with a decidedly disco motif that had me grinding my teeth into powder nearly sent me running to the local mental motel. As bad as the first five minutes of "Graduation Day" is, there truly is a method to the madness. We see a young girl beating her feet around the track, straining to pull into the lead and finish first as her testosterone drenched coach roars her on to victory. The girl does win, but she collapses and dies immediately after crossing the finish line amidst roars of shock from the crowd. It turns out the hapless young lady trained so hard to compete in the race that she ignored her deteriorating health, as did her domineering coach. You just know after seeing this unfortunate incident that someone will seek bloody revenge for the now dead girl.

Someone does start turning the student body into mincemeat shortly after the track and field fiasco, with special attention paid to the other members of the track team. We know this because the killer, who is some doofus clad in a sweatshirt with a hood, has a team picture of the track jocks he holds up to the camera every chance he or she gets. Every time the murderer offs one of the dead girl's teammates, he draws a red 'X' over that person's face in the snapshot. The kids die in various tepid ways. One of the girls dies in the locker room, one jock gets his on a trail running through the dense forest behind the school, and one girl dies outside of a party at the roller skating rink (!). I would like to tell you the kills are memorable in a way that puts all other slasher films to shame, but I won't lie to you. The whole slice and dice situation is quite mediocre for the genre as a whole. Several subplots take up large segments of the film, such as the put upon principal dealing with angry parents, a geeky music teacher who sleeps with his female students, and the sister of the dead girl who arrives home from the Navy to confront her angry stepfather and the apathy of the student body. The overbearing coach gets screen time too.

So why is "Graduation Day" a memorable film possibly worth viewing? Maybe it has something to do with the in your face early 1980s atmosphere. Check out that party at the roller skating rink. Man, oh man is that scene about as close as you can get to a time warp back to the days of early MTV, New Wave music, and Valley Girl speak. The band banging away in the background alone should give anyone who lived through that time a serious case of the flashbacks. The presence of Linnea Quigley in one of her first screen appearances also speaks well for the film, or maybe not depending on your views. The best element of the film, however, is the warped conclusion. Up to the end of the movie "Graduation Day" just sort of meanders along, not quite sure of itself, but the film takes a dive into the depths of weird when we finally discover who has been dispatching some of the locals. The atmosphere and the conclusion helped "Graduation Day" when nearly every other element failed to deliver. Why, for example, is there a kid walking around in a football uniform at the end of the school year? I thought football season ended before Christmas. Sometimes it is better to avoid such pesky questions and instead focus on the positives.

Since Troma Films released "Graduation Day," you can expect a boatload of lame extras typical of every Kaufman and company disc. This one has an interview with Linnea Quigley, trailers, a lousy sketch on how to stage an arm dismemberment, and a shameless plug for Kaufman's book about filmmaking (By the way, if you need to learn how to make a film from a guy like Kaufman, you should probably keep you day job flipping burgers.). Give "Graduation Day" a chance if you like slasher films. Sure, there are films with more gore and better atmosphere, but there are also worse ones than this movie. What a ringing endorsement, eh?

Rating:
Summary: Interesting slasher fare
Review: "Graduation Day" is an obscure yet interesting little slasher film. The movie doesn't really offer anything we haven't seen a million times before, doesn't really do anything spectacular with its miniscule budget, but it is an enjoyable movie nonetheless. I was a bit surprised to see Troma--those purveyors of abysmal cinema--distributing the DVD version of the film. I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since Lloyd Kaufman occasionally recognizes he must give the public something worthwhile to balance out the junk that constitutes the bulk of the Troma canon. "Graduation Day" came out in the early 1980s during that halcyon time when slasher films ruled the roost (and the box office) thanks to motion pictures like John Carpenter's "Halloween" and Sean Cunningham's "Friday the 13th." Most of the films attempting to cash in on the success of the splatter genre faded into obscurity. Thanks to the advent of DVD, we can now see both the good and the bad entries in this memorable cinematic movement. If that means we must turn our eyes to Troma to do so, then so be it.

"Graduation Day" starts with an opening sequence so cheesy, so horrifyingly awful to behold, that it almost made me turn the film off. Imagine, if you dare, the camera panning across your typical high school track and field event. Since the film takes place in that painful gray area between the late 1970s and early 1980s, most of the people we see look so geeky that even Bill Gates would have stigmatized them. Feathered coifs, lame T-shirts, lots of smiles caked in braces, and a background song with a decidedly disco motif that had me grinding my teeth into powder nearly sent me running to the local mental motel. As bad as the first five minutes of "Graduation Day" is, there truly is a method to the madness. We see a young girl beating her feet around the track, straining to pull into the lead and finish first as her testosterone drenched coach roars her on to victory. The girl does win, but she collapses and dies immediately after crossing the finish line amidst roars of shock from the crowd. It turns out the hapless young lady trained so hard to compete in the race that she ignored her deteriorating health, as did her domineering coach. You just know after seeing this unfortunate incident that someone will seek bloody revenge for the now dead girl.

Someone does start turning the student body into mincemeat shortly after the track and field fiasco, with special attention paid to the other members of the track team. We know this because the killer, who is some doofus clad in a sweatshirt with a hood, has a team picture of the track jocks he holds up to the camera every chance he or she gets. Every time the murderer offs one of the dead girl's teammates, he draws a red 'X' over that person's face in the snapshot. The kids die in various tepid ways. One of the girls dies in the locker room, one jock gets his on a trail running through the dense forest behind the school, and one girl dies outside of a party at the roller skating rink (!). I would like to tell you the kills are memorable in a way that puts all other slasher films to shame, but I won't lie to you. The whole slice and dice situation is quite mediocre for the genre as a whole. Several subplots take up large segments of the film, such as the put upon principal dealing with angry parents, a geeky music teacher who sleeps with his female students, and the sister of the dead girl who arrives home from the Navy to confront her angry stepfather and the apathy of the student body. The overbearing coach gets screen time too.

So why is "Graduation Day" a memorable film possibly worth viewing? Maybe it has something to do with the in your face early 1980s atmosphere. Check out that party at the roller skating rink. Man, oh man is that scene about as close as you can get to a time warp back to the days of early MTV, New Wave music, and Valley Girl speak. The band banging away in the background alone should give anyone who lived through that time a serious case of the flashbacks. The presence of Linnea Quigley in one of her first screen appearances also speaks well for the film, or maybe not depending on your views. The best element of the film, however, is the warped conclusion. Up to the end of the movie "Graduation Day" just sort of meanders along, not quite sure of itself, but the film takes a dive into the depths of weird when we finally discover who has been dispatching some of the locals. The atmosphere and the conclusion helped "Graduation Day" when nearly every other element failed to deliver. Why, for example, is there a kid walking around in a football uniform at the end of the school year? I thought football season ended before Christmas. Sometimes it is better to avoid such pesky questions and instead focus on the positives.

Since Troma Films released "Graduation Day," you can expect a boatload of lame extras typical of every Kaufman and company disc. This one has an interview with Linnea Quigley, trailers, a lousy sketch on how to stage an arm dismemberment, and a shameless plug for Kaufman's book about filmmaking (By the way, if you need to learn how to make a film from a guy like Kaufman, you should probably keep you day job flipping burgers.). Give "Graduation Day" a chance if you like slasher films. Sure, there are films with more gore and better atmosphere, but there are also worse ones than this movie. What a ringing endorsement, eh?

Rating:
Summary: Who will survive to graduate?
Review: After a track star collapses and dies after a meet, her teammates start following her example. The assailant appears to be the coach, but is it? Nothing much to report here; pretty bland stuff but there are some good scary scenes toward the end. Christopher George is particularly fine and watch for a young Vanna White. One of the least of the holiday-themed slasher films.

Rating:
Summary: Who will survive to graduate?
Review: After a track star collapses and dies after a meet, her teammates start following her example. The assailant appears to be the coach, but is it? Nothing much to report here; pretty bland stuff but there are some good scary scenes toward the end. Christopher George is particularly fine and watch for a young Vanna White. One of the least of the holiday-themed slasher films.

Rating:
Summary: This one doesn't graduate with honors...
Review: Graduation Day is pure... piggy bank budget like Friday the 13th that has more laughs than scares. Copying the latter film as well as Halloween, a track star dies (apparently from a blood clot?) and soon after, members from the team begin to fall victim to the make-up crew which was supposedly a 14 year old girl. The first killing, a throat slashing, looked like someone poured ketchup on the victims' neck. Bad! The rest of the cast looks like they are making it up as they go along. You have a better chance of making the film better yourself if you grab your video camera and a bunch of friends after picking up the tab at the local bar. But hey, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be wasting my time writing this review if I didn't like the movie in some cheesy way. It's so funny, you have to see it for yourself. I can't believe some studio head gave the final cut a thumbs up. The editing is horrible and the continuity is way off. I could go on and on, but look for Vanna White, yea, that's right, the wheel of fortune hottie, and the best scene with a jock getting killed by a football with a sword through it. Imported cheese at its finest. Great fun too!

Rating:
Summary: Otherwise decent slasher film marred by tasteless intro
Review: If you're a big-time slasher buff who's not too hard to please, GRADUATION DAY is a good way to spend the afternoon watching. The kills are good and the heroine is likeable. (The plot has already been described by Amazon and by other reviewers, so I won't bother repeating them.)

However, there is one thing that really upset me watching this that in itself knocks this reveiw down one star, that is the opening introduction by Lloyd Kaufman before the movie itself begins. While talking about the film he rather callously says,"This film is ahead of it's time! It came out nineteen years before the Colombine shootings!" (I swear to God I'm not making any of this up.) To so causually mention a real-life tragedy in such a careless manner I felt was in such extemly poor taste. The moive itself is fine, but be warned about the introduction.

Rating:
Summary: Sort of a let down...
Review: If you're expecting something like "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween" out of this, you only sort of get it. Theres a masked killer murdering teens, but it doesn't have the actual fun of F13's or the scares of the "Halloween" series. For the most part, it's pretty boring, in the same way "Prom Night" was, but even more so. Theres a TON of boring build-up, with teens and teachers having conversations, and stuff. The kills are pretty lame, too. However, it's not completely bad. It's actually pretty well made, and the directing is pretty good. You also get to see some cool clothes and hair from the early 80's, which was very enjoyable for me. But, again, it's mostly a snoozer, but it really doesn't deserve less than two stars. I sort-of reccomend it...

Rating:
Summary: Sort of a let down...
Review: If you're expecting something like "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween" out of this, you only sort of get it. Theres a masked killer murdering teens, but it doesn't have the actual fun of F13's or the scares of the "Halloween" series. For the most part, it's pretty boring, in the same way "Prom Night" was, but even more so. Theres a TON of boring build-up, with teens and teachers having conversations, and stuff. The kills are pretty lame, too. However, it's not completely bad. It's actually pretty well made, and the directing is pretty good. You also get to see some cool clothes and hair from the early 80's, which was very enjoyable for me. But, again, it's mostly a snoozer, but it really doesn't deserve less than two stars. I sort-of reccomend it...

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst slashers I've seen
Review: This is about some high school track team members who start turning up dead. As far as "atmosphere" goes, it's much more of a '70s movie than an '80s one. The characters range from banal to absolutely detestable. The pace is plodding. There's basically no plot at all, even by slasher standards. A little T&A, which just makes you notice how poor the picture quality is. The soundtrack is a joke, it actually sounds like you're listening to an old album. There's hum throughout, and snaps and pops all over the place.

There are a couple of interesting scenes, but that's about it. I was really looking forward to this movie, I mean, an '80s slasher with girls on the track team. But it took me three tries before I even finished watching it.