I hadn't heard that much about graduation day before
purchasing it at a hockshop for a dollar. Basically all I knew was it
was an early 80's low budget slasher, and that Troma had now picked it
up for distribution. That was more than enough info for me to make up
my mind on my purchase.
The movie begins at a high school track meet. The school athletic team
is cheering on their star runner, clearly about to win a race, but also
about to break a record. Her coach, looking suitably stern and nasty is
using a more negative approach to get her to run that little bit
faster. He's telling her she's worthless and can run faster as she
pushes herself along the track. She nears the finish, quite obviously
pushing herself to the limit and wins the race. As she crosses the
finish line and everyone cheers, she takes a few more steps and
collapses to the ground. She's dead. And all it took was thirty
seconds.
A few months later its graduation week. Linda's friends and boyfriend
are getting on with their lives and preparing for graduation. Her
sister arrives in town from the navy in order to accept her diploma. A
week until graduation and things start getting weird. The track team
start dropping like flies. A killer in a tracksuit with a stopwatch is
slowly killing the team. All it takes is 30 seconds. Everyone looks
like a suspect. The coach, the principal and even Linda's sister.
Everyone is acting strange in one way or another. The killer could be
anyone. Everyone seems to have a motive.
A lot of movies made around the same time as this one I have found to
be highly predictable and to have a very clear cut killer. This film
kept me guessing right up until the killers identity was revealed by
constantly throwing new clues (not all were valid) at you. Every time
you thought you knew who it was someone else would be made to look even
more guilty. I guess my only beef with this film was the amount of time
it took to really "get going". There was a large blank space between
the first kill and the second with a whole lot of filler. They really
took their time setting up a story.
I really liked the feel of this movie. A lot of early 80's teen
slashers have that "still trying to escape the 70's" kind of vibe, but
I think that this film stood up and firmly announced "This is the 80's
and we love it!". The thing I have found with a vast majority of 70's
horror films is that they are quite dark. Most of the action takes
place at night and there is a distinct lack of colour. We had none of
that here. Lots of bright colours, daytime kills and great early 80's
fashion.
Basic plot reveal was done rather cleverly at the beginning of the
film. I know one of the most laughable cheesy plot reveals that I have
ever seen is from Slumber Party Massacre where the news paper says
"Maniac Killer Escapes from Institution", or something to that effect.
This film did this far more cleverly by setting up characters and
situations in single short sequences and shots during the opening
credits. Linda was shown with Kevin so by the time the film actually
started, we knew he was her boyfriend. The other track stars were also
shown in their various sports, letting us know who was who. I liked
that a lot . It helped me understand the movie, yet wasn't blatantly
obvious.
Seems like Troma have picked a winner with this little ditty. Also, I
must add that its nice to see a familiar face (or two rather). Everyone
wave to Linnea Quigleys breasts! If you're a fan of the genre (or
Linnea's funbags) you can't miss this one. An underrated classic.
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Year: 1981
