Graduation Day

 

Red herrings, fake outs, and interesting kills galore in this one. This combines a fun high school movie on it's own with a slasher film with some possible giallo influence and similarities. The biggest flaw of this one is the runtime, pacing, and characters. While the first two acts are balanced well, this pulls a Girls Nite Out and inserts a draggy and pointless investigation scene into the third act. Christopher George and Linnea Quigley add some much needed ethos to their parts. Patch Mackenzie does a serviceable job playing of the toughest heroines in slasher movies. The film also benefits from a very Bernard Herrman sounding score by Arthur Kempel and a soundtrack featuring the rock band Felony.

The film starts with Laura Ramstead collapsing during a track meet. It is revealed later that she died of a blood clot. This all takes place during a montage of people at different events and an awesome disco rock song playing in the background.  Right before graduation, Laura's sister, Anne comes to get her trophy. Meanwhile everyone who was a member of the track team starts getting killed. The killer is seen wearing the same gray sweatshirt and using a stopwatch similar to the Coach of the track team, Coach Michaels (Christopher George). 

I'll just start right away by saying there are some good kills in this one. Knives to the neck, Tracheotomies with a fencing sword, bayoneted footballs to the stomach, beheadings with a fencing sword, pole vaulting onto spikes near the landing mat, and slow motion gunshot blood squibs. The tracheotomy kill is my favorite as we see the blood squirt back out of a person's back where the wound was. The football kill is cool as it is edited similarly to the Steve Christie kill in Friday the 13th as we see his first person view as the character approaches the killer. The first kill with the knife is cool as you see the blood hit the camera. Most of the kills feature rapidly high pitched strings with low pitched horns that again sounds like something out of Friday the 13th or a Bernard Herrman score. During most of the kills there is this interesting frame jumping thing where the screen rapidly switches between images, sometimes of Laura and the victim's dead body. 

There are similarities to giallo movies. The killer is seen with black gloves. They have a picture they cross off with lipstick or something like that to show they have killed certain members of the track team. I always enjoy that sorta thing in slasher movies. The killer also has a cool gimmick by timing a stop watch for 30 seconds, similar to how the coach said to Laura as she was running her sprint. 

Christopher George plays the overbearing gym coach, who at times can be mean, though I do think he ultimately cares about his players and getting them success. For most of the movie you may not like him but you never get to the point of hating him. Linnea Quigley, pre-boob-job and in one of her first film appearances plays a student fraternizing with the music teacher. Patch Mackenzie is good as Laura's older sister, an Ensign in the Navy. She takes no shit from anyone. Getting a ride to town she is harassed by the driver and she grabs his balls and says something like "If you even breathe in my direction you'll be eating your balls for lunch." Later when her alcoholic stepfather threatens to slap her around she simply says I wouldn't do that I've learned some things in the military. 

This film has problems with the pacing and runtime. While I enjoyed the chase between Linnea Quigley's character and the killer in the woods, combined with Felony's music in the background I thought it went on a little too long. While I always enjoy when characters actually catch on to the killings in slasher movies I didn't think a third act investigation was necessary. I did like seeing character actor, Carmine Argenziano as the cop though. The movie also has too many scenes of the Principal (Michael Pataki) taking calls in his office in that third act. Just have the security guard at the school be the one investigating and have him show up for that final confrontation at the end. Problem and cutting runtime solved.

There are almost too many red herrings in this movie. The movie obviously wants you to think Coach Michaels is the killer but that would be too obvious. There is a scene where the principal shows how many knives he has in his desk. The scene with the principal just spending time in his office reminded me of the Henry Winkler scenes in Scream. Even Anne is shown to be a red herring at one point taking off black gloves. This movie has so many fake outs too where either someone sees the killer and someone else pops up to ease the tension or it just is a fake out. 

Spoiler Section

It is eventually revealed Laura's 40 year old looking boyfriend, Kevin (E. Danny Murphy) is doing the killing. He has Laura's body in his room in a graduation gown. He reveals himself while fighting with Coach Michaels and the inspector shoots Coach Michaels while he holds a knife to Kevin thinking he would kill him otherwise. Anne and Kevin fighting under the bleachers of the school's field and Kevin impaled on the spikes in a closet. The film ends with a stupid and pointless stinger where Anne wakes from a nightmare thinking Kevin is in her room but it is really her drunk stepfather coming into be mean to her.

SLASHER MOVIE ANATOMY:

• Prior Evil: A girl dies while running sprints at a track event. Killer seeks revenge on the team.
• Body Count: 9
• Whodunit: Yes
• Mask or outfit: Gray sweatshirt, black gloves, at times a fencing mask
• Locale: High School
• Best Kill: Tracheotomy through the neck with a fencing sword
• Spot the famous person: Vanna White as Doris

INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH

• Knive: 1

• Fencing Sword: 3

• Bayoneted Football: 1

• Gunshot to the stomach: 1

• Metal Spikes: 2

• Blood clot in heart: 1

SLASHER MOVIE TAXONOMY

·         Kingdom: Movie

·         Phylum: Serious but fun

·         Class: Slasher

·         Order: 80s

·         Family: Upper body female nudity from Linnea Quigley (Surprise!) and Denise Cheshire as the gymnast Sally

·         Genus: So many red herrings and fake outs but a serious film tonally 

·         Species: Not too bloody but not tame.

Rating: 7/10

Trivia: Linnea Quigley replaced a different actress whose head mold is still used for the character's beheaded body

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMQYzw-9e6o