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Graduation Day 1981 ★★★
I must say that, upon this rewatch, I was much more mild towards this eighties slasher.
Sure, it had your run of the mill premise – a tragedy occurred, this time during a track event and now someone is out for revenge – but I must admit that the overall story and the kills had a certain campiness and goofy idea to them that endeared the movie to me more than it did on the previous viewing.
The kill with the football has you wondering how that could possibly work. Linnea Quigley's character gets decapitated after a drawn out chase scene and the polevault kill is simply hilarious. I also like the touch of adding the timer to the kills, taking as long as it took for the original girl to die. Or the checklist marked with lipstick.
The main characters are your standard horny teens, but the teachers fare no better. From the skeevy arts teacher who gets seduced by one of the students to the principal running away from the angry calls about missing children. Or the cops: one hates being there and the other smokes pot to deal with the stress of his job. And, of course, the final girl. Her not taking shit from males is a positive and I know what the ending was trying to emulate, but it's still odd seeing a marine run like that.
The reveal of the killer is accompanied by a nice Pyscho-esque score, which goes along well with the final reveal. The final girl circuit is also kind of funny with the aformentioned running and the way the polevaulter is displayed. Almost like Bill from the original Friday. Making this killer either very methodical or very lazy. That said, we could do without the nightmare sequence at the end. About as unnecessary as the ghost leaping out at the end of Unfriended. I'm guesisng studio note as well here.
Graduation Day. Good for a rewatch or people discovering the slasher genre.
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