Graduation Day Review

“It has always been my goal to watch one of the most independent horror slasher movies out there called “Graduation Day,” and what was stopping me from doing so was the fact that I could not find it up for rental. So, after much anticipation and finally able to watch it I have to say that I was pleasantly disappointed. The concept of the story was pretty fair and I have to give them credit for taking a very celebrating moment for any high schooler and twisting a horror story around it but it could have flown a lot better.

Lets, break this down shall we: the acting was really, really bad but you have to except that for such a low budget movie. There was one scene in particular; the scene where the killer explains everything, that had really bad dialogue and acting and all I could do was sit back and laugh at it. I enjoyed it though… I don’t want to poke fun at it.

Now what about the killer? This was something that has boggled me throughout the entire movie: what is up with the timer? I know that every killer has a trademark but I wasn’t sure on whether or not he was just doing that or if he wanted to know if he could beat his own killing time. Maybe it was, but for whatever reason it was I just never got the point.

As for the technical part of this movie, all I can say is that it set a new standard for which horror movies are edited and shot, specifically slasher films. Take for example the beginning scene when the camera cuts back and forth between the crowd and the track runners: this high speed montage editing was never seen before in a slasher. An even faster example of this technique would be the disco scenes. Also, there are moments where it seems less like a horror flick and more like an inspirational Olympics movie.

This was a unique experience for me and there were times when I laughed and times when the editing made me think I was watching and LSD induced trip but that’s the fun of watching these kinds of movies… for their attempts. If there should be any remake, it should be for this movie because I could see this movie as a mainstream movie and deserve the credit it sought out for.”