Way back when, say the late `90s or the early stages of the 21st century, the IMDb was an unreliable film narrator of sorts; even moreso than it is today (thankfully, the IMDb has tightened ship, as it were, on user submissions). One such piece of film history that only true die-hards of the slasher movie sub-genre may know about or, even remember, is a little movie called Gory Graduation.
Starring Lesleh Donaldson (Curtains, Happy Birthday To Me) and a few other memorable scream queens from the early `80s, a plot description was non-existent as was any crew information. The film languished in obscurity. So obscure was it, actually, that it never really existed.
Until now.
“I can remember spending years searching for any information on this elusive title, being then as much of a slasher completist as I am today and getting absolutely nowhere,” remarks Joseph Henson, director of Gory Graduation. “I thought to myself, here is a film, with such a provocative title, that NEEDS to be made.”
Of course, through the advent of social media, enough information was finally unearthed to determine the film was nothing more than a fake title stirred up by someone who, like Henson, probably wanted to make it but never did. The title was eventually removed from the IMDb and that was that. But boy, if you were active during the golden years of the alt.horror newsgroup or the birth of now-infamous horror sites, you remember the stir that was caused by this elusive title that was nothing more than fakery.
Of course, Henson and cohort Nathan Johnson (who co-wrote and co-directed The Night Before Easter with Henson) would promise themselves time and time again they’d eventually make their very own slasher one day (they are two of the biggest fans of the sub-genre possible, even being half of the wildly popular all-slasher podcast, The Hysteria Continues) even though they knew next to nothing about actual film making. They finally got their chance to make their own slasher with The Night Before Easter (2014), an exceptionally low-budget effort shot on a Canon T3i with little else in the way of equipment or budget. “The Night Before Easter, as clunky as it is, was a massive learning experience for us. Since wrapping that movie, I’ve spent hours upon hours, days upon days, and weeks turning into months soaking up knowledge on film making. How to stage scenes, internal camera settings, sound design, et al. We couldn’t afford to do a lot of things on The Night Before Easter but we plan to take what we’ve learned from that experience, on top of a much higher budget (a five figure budget we are working on raising) and going from clunk to spunk, as it were,” notes Henson.
“I’m proud of The Night Before Easter all things considered,” says Henson, “…but with Gory Graduation, we really want to up the stakes internally and externally – if The Night Before Easter was sub-Roger Corman, we hope Gory Graduation will be sub-Argento in style, fluidity and consistency.”
The plot concerns a graduation ceremony that becomes the stomping grounds for a killed decked out in ceremonial robes. It is, at its core, a non-nonsense slasher film with a massive bodycount and lots of gore, nudity and, above all, likable characters.
Gory Graduation is currently being scripted and Henson and Johnson are, on top of scripting, raising a budget to purchase more equipment and to hire a much larger cast/crew (including a few known names with whom negotiations are underway).
“I feel that The Night Before Easter was a trial run, a get your feet wet sort of thing. I had a rudimentary knowledge of editing and went in knowing nothing else. Nathan and I were essentially two guys throwing something together with little money and very few resources, but all things considered, we think we made… Something. With Gory Graduation, we’re going to erase the mistakes we made and triple the stuff that worked,” Henson concludes.
You can follow Gory Graduation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gory.Graduation
The film is slated to begin production in 2015 and will see a release in 2016.
