Year: 1981
Director: Herb Freed
Writer: Anne Marisse, Herb Freed
Genre: Slasher
The 80s were the decade of the slasher film. I've seen a great deal of them but there's always more out there to dig up. Since Graduation Day was up on streaming I decided to give it a look. While it doesn't realy stand out among the crowded genre, it's still an alright film. That's better than being a total and complete disaster, at least.
I've heard people complain about the acting a lot but it wasn't a big deal to me. Overall the characters seem to be relatively regular high schoolers (except that they look to be college aged a lot of the time). The story starts out where a young track star mysteriously dies after winning a race. It wasn't foul play as far as anyone can tell anyway, just a high school athlete being pushed too hard. I think that's a pretty pertinent tale even today where many students are pushing themselves much further than they can handle.
Anyway, quickly the film sets us up with suspects. If there's one thing that this movie deserves a compliment for it's how it manages to give us a list of suspects who all could be the killer. A smart horror fan could probably deduce the true murderer before too long, but even I was happy to let the movie guide my perception of who the killer was all the way through. The reveal makes sense too although it isn't the most exciting one.
The movie was okay. I wasn't crazy about it but it at least held my interest for the near hour and fourty minutes it drew on. If there was one thing I'd change it would be to cut down on some of the movie. Graduation Day is an acceptable film but not something to watch if you want to get your blood pumping.
It's funny, but I actually like Graduation Day more because of the unnecessary crap that makes it run too long. Except that seven minute long song at the dance, that was Godawful. I know they had to stall so Linnea Quigley could get good and stalked but couldn't the band have learned two 3 1/2 minute songs?
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