By Geno McGahee
The 1980s was a very special time for slasher films. I especially enjoy the whodunit slasher flicks and they made them by the dozens during this time. I can’t get enough of this genre and although many of them follow the same formula, it never gets old. GRADUATION DAY is a whodunit slasher that is great for many reasons. The first and most obvious is Christopher George, possibly the best death scene actor for all time. When he dies, the look on his face is priceless. There is pain and then there is Christopher George pain. He was great in PIECES, great in MORTUARY and great in this as Coach Michaels.
We start with a race and Coach Michaels pushing his team to the max. He pushes a little too hard and his star runner, Laura, dies of a heart attack. Her sister, Anne (Patch Mackenzie), comes back to town after serving in the military and is immediately picked up by a fat pervert. Every horror film from the 1980s had a fat pervert, but this one added a unique twist. This fat pervert was sporting an ascot. It was really out of place, but even the fattest, most perverted, most redneck prick can have that one thing that separates him from the rest. That ascot sets him apart and he, of course, tries to sexually assault Anne, but he is easily fought off.
Anne comes home and her father is still a prick and a drunk. She begins investigating her sister’s death, but there is more going on. Somebody is carrying around a stopwatch and wearing a fencing mask and killing those that were close to Laura. The same person is taking lipstick and X’ing out the other runners on a large photo. Whoever the killer is has a direct connection with Laura and there are many suspects. I love whodunits with a nice selection of suspects.
One of the top suspects is Kevin (E. Danny Murphy) a high school student that looks like he’s forty. He was planning on marrying Laura, but the tragedy changed it all. He seems nice enough, but he may be hiding a dark secret. There is Coach Michaels, an easy pick, especially considering that he owns a stopwatch. Then again, I think everyone in this film owns one and shows it off at one point or another. This film keeps throwing you in different directions.
–SPOILER ALERT SECTION –
Kevin turns out, as any horror fan familiar with this genre would expect, to be the killer, but there are some added elements here that makes this even more fun than usual. He has a fight with Coach Michaels and accuses him of killing Laura, and then tells him that they all “had to pay.” As they struggle, Michaels gets the upper hand, but the police show up and shoot him. The cop just says “Coach Michaels” and then bang! At least we get to see the great death scene from George. He really sold it. You believed that he was shot and it is yet another great example of bad police work. He could have told him to drop his knife, get on the ground, or shot him in the leg. No, he busted a cap in his ass.
Kevin reveals to Anne that he is still going to marry Laura and he has kept her corpse in his bedroom, dressed in her graduation gown. It is an awesome visual to see him launched out of the window and then carry the corpse back up to his room.
It’s now a battle of life and death as Anne tries to fight off Kevin, who now blames her too for Laura’s death. He is a little off.
GRADUATION DAY is awesome. I can’t stand Lloyd Kauffman and you have to sit through his painfully unfunny intro, but it is worth it to watch this classic 80’s slasher. Writing this, I am tempted to watch it again.
Rating: 8/10