Graduation Day (1981)


The slasher formula should be easy.  One just chooses a setting, puts a bunch of annoying teenagers or college kids in it and adds a deranged killer. Just make sure there is a good final girl, include enough breasts and blood to get people in the seats and leave it open for a sequel.  

Despite this easy formula so many of these movies just go wrong.  Whether it is pacing, plotting or just general incompetence behind or in front of the camera, so many of these movies even from the classic period are barely watchable today.  The fact that there was more butchering in the studio than on screen never helped, as often the few reasons for seeing the movie were excised before they even got to the theater.  Even so, I really can't see the appeal of something like Graduation Day. 

High school track star Laura Ramstead (Ruth Ann Llorens) dies after completing a run in just 30 second, leading to coach George Michaels (Christopher George) being let go by the school.  Her sister Anne (Patch Mackenzie) comes home on leave from the Navy to collect her trophy and honor her at her graduation.  It is shortly after she arrives that the other members of the track team start to mysteriously die. 

At first it is thought that they are playing a prank, leading principal Guglione (Michael Pataki) to not take things too seriously.  When bodies do start to turn up it begins to look like Michaels was the one involved. Whoever the killer may be, he attempts to complete each of his killings in 30 seconds, timing on a stopwatch to match Laura's last few seconds of life.

The whole stopwatch thing could have been interesting, as well as Anne's strained relationship with her mother and stepfather.  It was obvious that at first we were supposed to think Anne may be the killer, but director Herb Freed is not skilled enough to pull off that deceit.  The killer becomes quite clear after a short period of time, despite Freed stepping in to play him for the death of Dolores (Linnea Quigley).  

There are elements in the film that seem as if they should be played for comedy, but like everything else it just doesn't seem to work.  Anne is absent for a good portion of the film, which further muddies everything.  With some effort this may have made a giallo-esque mystery, but instead Graduation Day just winds up being a frustrating mess. 

Graduation Day (1981)
Time: 96 Minutes
Starring: Patch Mackenzie, Christopher George, E. Danny Murphy
Director: Herb Freed

 

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