Let's face it, GRADUATION DAY was never going to win any film-making awards. It's a low budget slice of sleazy trash, rushed out on the cheap to cater for the audience's new-found appetite for horror in the wake of HALLOWEEN and Friday THE 13TH. The plot is threadbare, the editing is slightly dodgy, and most of the cast give performances so wooden that you'd think you were down the local forest.And yet, and yet...GRADUATION DAY has a certain charm all of its own. The high school setting is a fun one, and the various HALLOWEEN-inspired stalk 'n' slash sequences are a hoot. The cheesy gore effects are equally great fun, and then there's the presence of the hammily entertaining Christopher George (THE EXTERMINATOR) as the coach, George Michaels (yes, really). A dodgy musical interlude goes on FOREVER, and of course it wouldn't be a slasher film without the twist endings.Director Herb Freed seems intent on making his film as sleazy as possible given the constraints of the day; his camera lovingly lingers on his actresses (including a young Linnea Quigley) as they strip off and inevitably find themselves murdered soon afterwards. Playing "guess the killer" is part of the fun. It might be cheap, shoddy and occasionally distasteful, but is GRADUATION DAY fun? The answer is a resounding yes!

I used to be a huge Slasher fan. I still am to a certain extent. I still check out old slasher's from the 80's as I am entertained by some of them. The original Halloween is my favorite of all time; I dig the original F13th film and some of its sequels, so I'm not all that picky. I found this one on You Tube… needless to say it was pretty bad. The cheese factor is certainly here and there are moments of enjoyment to be had; not many of them, but it wasn't void of them, but that's probably the only compliment I can give it. Like most slasher's from the 80's. It is done in by its derivative nature and of course the terrible acting. It doesn't offer much suspense, and the deaths are mostly bloodless and uninspired. The opening wasn't that bad. A track runner plummeting to her death was rather decent, but it made the killer much too obvious in the long run. The killer himself is rather bland as well. A sweat suit and a fence mask? That would make me shake in my boots for sure. We have some familiar faces in the cast. Genre favorite Christopher George plays a moody sports coach…what a shock! Other notable actors such as Michael Pataki (Rocky IV) and the lovely Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune are in it as well. I almost forgot. I did like the ending. It got me there for a moment, which is something I wasn't expecting…Final Thoughts: Know what you're getting with this one. A lot of bad acting, a rip off Friday the 13th, and uninspired death scenes. If you like a little bit of cheese, but cheese that lacks suspense and the overall fun factor, this is probably for you. I'd skip it as I said in the summary3.5/10

Many independent films have their place in the world, but "Graduation Day" makes you want to think twice about moving forward with your life. Senior year, also known as the year you graduate from high school. In this case, some of these students won't be making it that far. So what's the case? Low grades? Credit hours not enough to graduate? Well it's none of those answers. The real answers is the track team is getting bumped off. One student at a time. Why? Because one of the track stars died of a heart attack while finishing up the race in first place. Then suddenly, the other track stars are dying off as well. So when the news of her sister's death was mentioned, Ensign Anne Ramstead (Patch Mackenzie) is in town to investigate the murders of the track meet. The track meet does blame the coach(Christopher George) for his training methods. After he gets fired from the school, he ends up being a murder victim as well. I know that the school will end up vindicating him afterwards. So if it wasn't the coach, who was it? Not from the outside of the school, but inside the track meet. Laura's own boyfriend. He was more off kilted than the coach. Killing his own team? Not a very good feature. The real good feature is future "Wheel of Fortune" letter turner Vanna White playing Doris. This movie was all right, but it was not the best slasher film though. I've seen better.

The title for this review about sums up how I feel about this movie. I can't imagine what audience there would be for this thing, if not for the die-hard fan of 1980s slasher films who simply has to see -everything- from that era. Otherwise, don't even waste your time on this.The story is similar to most films of its type: something awful happens to one of the characters in the opening scene, which inspires a bloodthirsty killer to go on a murderous rampage. Been there, done that. Truth be told, none of these '80s slashers were known for their originality, so I can't see the point in harping on the film simply for this.But where the film fails is in its suspense and murder sequences. I've seen some pretty scary slasher movies from the 1980s that had far lower budgets than this. This one just fails to create any real suspense. The director throws in some nice camera angles and some semi-professional directorial touches here and there, but they mean nothing if you're not frightened. The gore is pretty tame as well, so anyone who watches these things with the intention of seeing some cool 1980s makeup effects will be sadly disappointed.The movie manages to clunk along rather dully. Honestly, the key ingredient to almost any slasher is the tight pacing--you have to keep things moving along swiftly and keep the murder set pieces staged at regular intervals, because, let's face it, we don't watch these things for the great characterization and stellar plots. But the pacing, whether due to the script or the editor, is all off. The murders are spaced out at odd intervals, leaving us with some long-winded scenes (no doubt meant to build "character") that serve only to bore you and leave you praying for the next kill (which, as I've said, usually isn't executed all that well anyway).As for the killer, don't expect anything original or even remotely frightening. He (or she?) wears a jogging suit, a fencing mask, and his (or her?) primary weapon is a sword. I bet the writer just wet himself over thinking he came up with an original, "cool" murder weapon, but the idea just comes off as impractical and silly. There's also not much emphasis placed on the "whodunnit' nature of the film, as if they either forgot or don't care to place any red herrings in the mix to throw us off.I have the sense that the people behind this were trying to make something decent and respectable, and at times, it shows their intentions were probably a bit more genuine in regards to making a quality film as opposed to countless other knockoff slashers from the era. But alas, the attempt fails for the most part. There is, however, some pretty good acting (at least, for this type of film). There is attempt at characterization, but none of it ends up meaning anything in the end, so...what a waste. Here, all it manages to do is bog down the plot and make the murder sequences feel like they can't come soon enough.In the end, if you're really into these old '80s slashers, by all means, check it out, if only to say you've seen it. There's a completest in all of us. But don't expect to be blown away or anything. What we have here is a very mildly entertaining slasher movie that leaves no real impression at all.