Movie Review: Graduation Day (1981)

Synopsis: High school track star Laura Ramstead dies unexpectedly from an embolism at a track meet two months before her graduation. A short while later, Coach George Michaels is accused of pushing her too hard and loses his job. As the remaining seniors on the track team prepare to get their diplomas, they are suddenly stalked by a killer wearing a fencing uniform and carrying a stopwatch.

Who's in it? The movie stars Christopher George, Patch Mackenzie, Virgil Frye, E. Danny Murphy, Vanna White and E. J. Peaker.

Review: I was in the mood for an 80s slasher movie and convinced my wife to let me pick one out on Amazon Prime. Graduation Day was one of the first ones to pop up and since it was a film I had heard about but had never seen, we gave it a try. Based on the movie genre, I had lowered expectations, but the film even failed to reach that bar.

The movie's premise was very basic which, for this type of movie, isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, a basic premise leaves very little room or excuses for bad execution and the movie fails in that regard.

One of my biggest complaints about the 96-minute film is there are some very large gaps between murders, with the bulk of them being committed in a very short span of time. This means the film has a lot of filler, including a cringey scene involving a student seducing her music teacher, a (admittedly funny but also not necessary) scene involving the high school principal (Michael Pataki) fielding calls from angry parents wondering why their kids didn't come home and even a rock concert at a roller rink.

The movie also proved to be somewhat predictable. The filmmakers went through a great deal of effort to throw in some red herrings regarding the killer, making Coach Michaels (George) seem like the primary suspect with the deceased runner's sister (Mackenzie) hinted as another suspect. However, it wasn't too difficult to figure out who the real killer was.

Another thing that bothered me about this movie was the killer's motives. I could see the murderer wanting to get revenge on Coach Michaels for pushing his students too far but blaming the rest of the track team too just seemed a bit of a reach, considering Laura (Ruth Ann Llorens) died of an undiagnosed health condition and it wasn't something related to bullying, hazing, etc.

In fact, I kind of feel like the movie would have been quite a bit better had it not tried to throw in the obvious misdirection regarding Coach Michaels and had him be the very clear target from the beginning, with the killer focusing solely on him and only killing people who got in the way. Maybe they'll save that angle for a remake.

Final Opinion: For a slasher film, it's kind of dull. However, if you watch closely enough, you do get to see Vanna White before her Wheel of Fortune fame. 

My Grade: D

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