30 September Slashers: Day 23-GRADUATION DAY

Greetings from Tromaville…I mean 30 September Slashers.  For over 30 years, Lloyd Kaufman and Troma have been churning out cult cinema for horror fans and non horror fans alike.  While Troma’s star has defiantly dimmed in the last ten years, the brand itself holds a special place in most horror fan’s hearts.  Who didn’t love seeing titles such as The Toxic Avenger or Class of Nuke Em High when they were 14.  I remember thinking that the head crushing scene in the original Toxic was one of the sickest things I had ever seen.  For the next two installments we will look at two slashers released under the Troma moniker.  The first of which is the film Graduation Day.

Day 23: Schools Out Forever…..Graduation Day

The whole school came out to see Laura win the big track meet, but as she ran across the finishing line, she collapsed and died.  Just a few months later, just before graduation day, all the members of the track team begin to get killed off by a mysterious killer.  Could it be the coach who got shit- canned after Laura died?  Is it Laura’s long lost sister who showed up just in time for graduation?  I promise that by the time they get around to answering this question, you won’t really give a shit.

As a slasher, this film had many of the elements that make this type of film work:  A bunch of teenagers, a revenge plot, a high body count, and a masked killer.  All this aside, the characters weren’t very memorable and the kills were less than inspired.  Hell, the killer’s gimmick was that he used a stopwatch to time the kills (lame).  Christopher George did a good job as the track coach but everybody else was forgettable at best.  The film does get kudos for a gruesome spike kill that looks like it could have been from a Herschell Gordon Lewis film.

I can’t say that I would recommend this film.  At 1 hour and 36 minutes, I thought it was about 20 minutes too long and it left me hitting the fast forward button through most of the film.  I would say that it is much better than later Troma releases such as Buttcrack or Rockabilly Vampire, but that’s not saying much.  Lets hope Uncle Lloyd does a better job with tomorrow’s film, Mother’s Day.