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
