Graduation Day

1981 Directed by Herb Freed

Horror Marathon Day 14 Film 21

After a girl dies unexpectantly after a track and field event a killer stalks her other teammates. That's about all there is to this story- as the killer easily dispatches a few of them without anyone suspecting. There's a lot of choppy flicker based editing to elicit some kind of maddening horror, but it just feels nauseating rather than adding much. A red herring here and there and some quick burst shots of blood make this a weaker film than many of its contemporaries (though I like some of the skewering with a fencing saber). There are a few gratuitous booty-short shots of one of the victims after death too- almost making a self parody of the 80s slasher flick with some silly trap spike setups.

There isn't much to the killer's motivation either- The murder mystery doesn't make sense given the context of the other kills- and could have been guessed from the first few minutes of the film. Even with constant splicing shots of menace and a stop watch I was really hoping more for an actual graduation ceremony with a massacre set piece like Carrie, but was let down by the title. Also the final girl chase is alright with some tableau of the macabre in how the previous bodies are piled up- but she's needlessly silly in fighting her way out of it considering the film sets her up to be a US Navy officer. It really feels like one of the typical slashers that's mostly mediocre but with a few moments of thrill.