Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Graduation Day Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf August 29, 2014

It’s hard to hate any horror movie that opens at a track meet and welcomes viewers with a disco theme song. 1981’s “Graduation Day” arrived in a crowded marketplace, with dubious producers scrambling to cash in on the success of 1978’s “Halloween,” with their lust for cheap and easy profit renewed when 1980’s “Friday the 13th” hit the box office jackpot. Horror was hitting hard and fast during this period, with overall creative quality less of a priority. While “Graduation Day” isn’t an awards contender, the Herb Freed-directed chiller has a little more interest in cinematic pursuits than much of its brethren, offering audiences a traditional offering of slasher entertainment, with victims pierced and gutted by a variety of weapons, but done so with a raw style that fixates on pace, not prolonged suffering. It’s completely goofball stuff, but engaging and, at times, exciting, giving a notoriously lazy genre a firm towel snap as it strives to turn a minimal budget into a nail-biter.

After the sudden death of her track star sister, military officer Anne (Patch Mackenzie) has returned home for the local high school’s graduation day celebration to honor her sibling and console her grieving boyfriend, Kevin (E. Danny Murphy). Unfortunately, an unknown killer is out to ruin the fun, picking off the track team one by one, timing these murders with a stopwatch. As school winds down for the year, Principal Guglione (Michael Pataki) doesn’t want to deal with a rash of missing kids, also facing the firing of Coach Michaels (Christopher George), a controversial leader who pushes his athletes hard. As students commence a week of sex, drugs, and roller skate parties, the killer waits patiently to strike, while Anne is pushed into the middle of the chaos, relying on her self-defense training to survive.

The screenplay by Freed and Anne Marisse doesn’t break any new ground in slasher cinema, once again trotting out a situation where an unknown figure is out to ruin a celebration for a select few. We see the killer’s POV, with black gloves clutching a stopwatch, and we hear heavy breathing. However, just who this monster is remains a mystery, unless of course you take careful note of body type during stalking sequences and beefy hands during the kills. Whoops. The writing is obvious and the whole whodunit angle is blown early, but that doesn’t stop the production from trying to outwit the viewer, dumping in a host of red herrings that suggest anyone, from Anne to Coach Michaels, could be the killer. Such teases are quite amusing, but “Graduation Day” fumbles when it comes to masking the identity of the butcher.

Freed is better at staging kills and group entertainment, with the feature’s highlight arriving with a roller skating party, where the band Felony rocks out while students zip by on wheels, unaware that a few of their own are being chopped up outside. The murders are not as varied as hoped for, with the killer sticking to swords and a fencing foil for the most part, though threats grow interesting when modifications come into play, finding one gridiron hero stabbed by a thrown football with a bayonet attachment, while another athlete finds out the hard way that one should always check the mat before attempting to pole vault. Between gruesome incidents, characters are explored to a certain degree, though I question why the writing basically ignores Anne during the midsection of the movie to spotlight Principal Guglione and his secretary, Blondie (E.J. Peaker), who are working to pull off a smooth graduation event as law enforcement officials begin to take notice of the missing kids.

If you’re a fan of before-they-were-famous casting, “Graduation Day” presents Vanna White in a supporting role as a student, showing the type of thespian ability that makes her eventual career turning letters on “Wheel of Fortune” seem like a smart move. For cult fans, Linnea Quigley also pops up to provide “Celebration Day” with some nudity, and ‘80s “Fame” heartthrob Bill Hufsey appears as doomed kid.

Graduation Day Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation brings "Graduation Day" to HD with a satisfying preservation of the endeavor's original look. Grain is managed successfully, bringing a wonderfully filmic texture to the viewing experience, and colors are revived with care, displaying life without fade, giving a welcome push to costumes and bloodshed, which retains its runny redness. Skintones are also pinkish and true. Being a softly shot feature, distinct sharpness isn't present, but fine detail remains open for inspection, preserving grisly make-up achievements and thespian response. Blacks are communicative throughout. Damage is present, with speckling and judder, but overall the disc is a winner, securing the visual essentials of the cult movie.

Graduation Day Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Overall, the 1.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix is capable of projecting the movie's thriller elements, with an agreeable surge of scoring cues, which preserve instrumentation and supportive power, giving chase sequences a comfortable sonic foundation. Dialogue exchanges retain thinness, hitting a few tinny highs when emotions explode. Most soundtrack cuts share a consistent power, but the feature's centerpiece Felony performance of "The Gangster Rock" comes off a tad distorted, blowing out dialogue. While hiss is present but not obtrusive, a noticeable buzzing noise pops up midway through the picture, remaining for a few sequences.

Graduation Day Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary #1 features producer David Baughn.

• Commentary #2 features The Hysteria Continues.

• Interview (8:48, HD) with actress Patch Mackenzie is a cheery discussion of her television career and audience response to "Graduation Day," which brought her a level of cult fame that has sustained to this day.

• Interview (12:22, HD) with director Herb Freed explores his interest in filmmaking, working with small budgets and exploitable genres, embracing the high of audience involvement. A celebration of the cast is also included, with the helmer extremely satisfied with his ensemble and the screenplay's submission of motivation, hoping to elevate "Graduation Day" away from the competition.

• Interview (11:34, HD) with producer Dave Baughn explores his history with film sales and time with Russ Meyer, learning the ropes as he sold movies around the country. Proud of his work, Baughn explains how "Graduation Day" was distributed across the country, making a small fortune off this tiny picture.

• Interview (7:20, HD) with editor Martin Jay Sadoff concentrates on the creation of mood for "Graduation Day," which employed a unique style to help liven up the proceedings. Sadoff also shares his professional history, including his time working on the "Friday the 13th" series.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (2:04, HD) has been included.

Graduation Day Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Graduation Day" is boosted by determined editing from Martin Jay Sadoff, who's at least trying to break up the norm with sophisticated cutting, and the score from Arthur Kempel rips off Bernard Herrmann in a loving way, adding a dash of Hitchcockian flair to the picture's grand finale. It's these little additions that add up along the way, helping to break "Graduation Day" of its repetition, finding a personality of its own that's entertaining and intermittently suspenseful. It's not pure gold, but as no-budget efforts go during this sketchy time period, the movie has speed and periodic bursts of ambition.