Graduation Day
When I was scrolling through Tubi to find something to watch I saw Graduation Day. I couldn’t remember if I’d seen it or not. It looks like something I would have watched but I wasn’t sure. There were so many 80’s slashers, slasher’s having to do with school, so I thought I would give it a shot. Turns out I have seen it before, it’s just not very memorable.
Photo Credit: Baughn/Freed Productions
Released: May 1, 1981
Runtime: 96 mins
Director: Herb Freed
Writer: Herb Freed, Anne Marisse, David Baughn
Actors: Christopher George, Patch Mackenzie, E. Danny Murphy
PLOT
It’s almost Graduation Day, and a mask killer starts murdering students on the school track team after a track runner dies months earlier.
MY THOUGHTS
There are nine deaths in Graduation Day. Unfortunately, most are just average kills. The two that are semi interesting would be Ralph’s who was impaled by a football tipped with a javelin and Pete’s death. Now Pete’s was interesting. He’s a pole vaulter. When he vaulted over the bar, instead of landing on the cushion, he landed on a bed of spikes. Now that was creative.
The acting really isn’t that great. But a positive is it has Linnea Quigley in it. And we get an early Vanna White. Yes, you read that correctly. THE Vanna White of The Wheel of Fortune game show.
Basically, a track star dies shortly after crossing the finish line. She had some sort of blood clot I think, and then died. Six months later everyone is getting ready for graduation and totally forgetting about the girl who died.
But someone remembers. That person is killing off the members of the track and field team. Hiding the bodies so nobody suspects. Or so it seems. Wouldn’t people notice there are people missing?
We get the usual suspects and red herrings:
The girl’s older sister arrives home from the military for the graduation (even though her sister won’t be in it). At first she seems rather suspicious by the way she’s acting.
The girl’s boyfriend. He seems like a nice, cool, and helpful guy. But you always have to suspect the significant other.
The girl’s track coach. Because of her death, he loses his job.
The drunken stepfather. He seems kind of unhinged, or just a drunk.
For the negatives, it’s kind of boring. I found myself being side tracked and nodding off at times. It had potential. I mean, someone dies. Another person wants revenge. I mean it’s the basic plot of a lot of slasher films. There’s just something lacking in it. It felt like the director couldn’t decide if it was going to be serious or campy. Unfortunately, because of this, it doesn’t fit in either category. I thought the band Felony was a decent band but I felt the party scene just lasted way too long.
As far as the positives, I think the idea of the movie was decent. I’m reminded of Giallo movie’s in that we don’t see who the killer is, but we see the killer with gloves on and this killer has a stop watch he or she uses at each kill. Plus the pole vault was an interesting kill. I will say it was interesting seeing a young Vanna White in a slasher movie. And of course Linnea Quigley. I’m always down to watching her in a movie.
Overall Graduation Day is a mediocre slasher movie that if you don’t have anything else to do, watch it, but do so while doing something. Otherwise you might find yourself nodding off.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
The blonde girl in the number 46 track jersey was cut out of the film as much as possible since she was fired due to refusal to fulfill the nudity requirements. Linnea Quigley was hired to replace her. Quigley talked about her big break in a 2004 interview. "I got Graduation Day by going in and having to act scared. This other girl had already been cast as Delores but once she got on the set she refused to show her breasts, so they called me and I was scared too, but I wanted to do the film so badly, and back then it was like a huge no no to refuse to do nudity, so I guess I got lucky." It wasn't her first time to do nude scenes. She had already been fully nude in previous films, including one where she played a 15-year old girl (she was 21 at the time) who danced naked during a movie audition.
Laura's jersey number repeatedly changes between 45 and 40 during the opening sequence.
At the time of the film's release, there was a backlash from critics against the overabundance of slasher films being made. In a form of protest, many critics refused to review any horror movies in hopes that the lack of print publicity would have a negative impact on the films' profits. As a result, Graduation Day did well upon its premiere in Los Angeles (which coincided with many schools' graduation), but not as well on the East Coast, where it received no reviews from critics whatsoever.
Director Herb Freed does a cameo as the killer in the chase sequence with Linnea Quigley.
Toward the end of the film, when the dead bodies are discovered under the bleachers, Linnea Quigley's decapitated head is never found. This is because she hadn't been hired yet when they shot the scene. However, the decapitated head of the actress who she replaced remains in the scene.
Check out my other reviews here: Forever Final Girl
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 3.5/5
Sex/Nudity: 2/5
Scare factor: 2/5
Enjoyment factor: 3.5/5
My Rank: 2.75/5
IMDB: 4.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 5.7/10 audience: 1.8/10
Letterboxd: 2.6/5