GRADUATION DAY (1981)
Tromatic Special Edition Blu-ray
Label: Troma
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 96 Minutes 44 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Herb Freed
Cast: Christopher George, Ruth Ann Llorens, Michael Pataki, Vanna White, Patch McKenzie, Linnea Quigley
In the highschool-set slasher Graduation Day (1981) Ann Ramstead (Patch McKenzie, It's Alive III: Island of the Alive), a young woman in the armed forces, returns to her small California hometown to bury her younger sister Laura (Ruth Ann Llorens, Cheaper To Keep Her), who dropped dead from a blood clot immediately after winning a high school track meet. The girls coach George Michaels (Christopher George, City of the Living Dead) has drawn criticism for pushing student athletes too hard, and with senior graduation day fast approaching the student and staff try to carry on, but someone donning a fencing sword and mask arrives on the scene and starts knocking off the track team in the week leading up to the graduation ceremony.
The film doesn't stray too far from the tried-and-true slasher tropes of the era, we have a group of teens and a demented masked killer murdering them for reasons unknown, with no shortage of suspects to choose from, everyone is made to look a suspect in this flick. Could it be the too-tough coach Michael, or maybe Principal Guglioni (Michael Pataki, Last Foxtrot in Burbank), perhaps the creepy truancy officer MacGregoror (Virgil Frye, The Hot Spot), the dead girl's boyfriend Kevin (E. Danny Murphy, The New World), or maybe even the older sibling of the fallen track star herself!
The high school setting is pretty great and feels plenty authentic with early 80's fashions and hair-dos, rowdy highschool track meets, a rollicking roller skate rink party, horny teens and a rocking soundtrack with plenty of hard driving eighties cheesiness from the band Felony, and we even get a disco-tinged opening theme song! Sure, the story itself is a bit hackneyed, but we do have a great cast, which includes the venerable Christopher George as the hard-ass track coach, chewing up the scenery quite nicely. Patch McKenzie as the older sibling is quite capable, too, but unfortunately disappears for a large stretch, perhaps to further hint at her being the killer, before returning for the final moments for a damn decent final stretch. Her scenes at home with her grieving lush of a mom Elaine (Beverly Doxon, Beyond Evil) and asshole stepfather Ronald (Hal Bokar, Lady in White), are fun to watch, the dad is a complete and total jackass - the whole thing reminded me of the Strode family dynamic from Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, a real bastard with no love for his oldest step daughter.
The track team who find themselves n the killer's list include Paula (Linda Shayne, Humanoids from the Deep), Sally (Denise Cheshire ), Ralph (Carl Rey), Dolores (Linnea Quigley, Night of the Demons), Tony (Billy Hufsey, Off the Wall), and Pete (Tomás Hintnaus). Also keep an eye out for gameshow presenter Vanna White (Looker) in a small role. Also in a small role is Carmen Argenziano (Into the Night) as Det. Holladay, who shows up investigating the missing seniors, and if you watched TV in the 80-00's you definitely saw this guy at least two dozens of times, he's one of those character actors whose face looks so dang familiar but damned if you could name one thing you saw him in, with over 200 credited appearances in TV and film, such is the life of a character actor.
Being a slasher film the kills are pretty important, and they are creative and fun, but the execution is not the greatest. I do give the crew high marks for creativity, a few of the deaths involve a fencing sword with stabbing and a couple of decapitations, but my favorite would have to be the sword-tipped football tipped, that was awesome, the physics of it be damned! The kills all have a loose sport theme to them, which should appeal to fans of Fatal Games (1984), and we get a stop-watch motif that constantly pops-ups where the killer kills in 30-seconds, because that how long it to Laura to win her race and die at the start of the film.
The aforementioned B-movie scream queen Linnea Quigley shows up in a small role as a teen who lusts for a goofy lounge-lizard music teacher Mr. Roberts (Richard Balin, Schizoid), who is inexplicably banging highschool girls left and right considering what a odd-looking goofball he is. Quigley's inclusion provides some fun nudity, a fun bit of trivia tells of how she replaced the original girl that was cast when the former actress refused to to do the required nudity. When Quigley's horny character gets her head lopped off later on out n the woods the prop-head is not hers, but that of the original actress's likeness, not Quigley's.
The identity of the killer is not the best kept secret despite the fact that the film throws a non-stop barrage of red herrings at us, it's pretty much given away during the opening scene in my opinion, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. Slightly generic though it may be it won me over with the creative but sadly gore-less kills, general eighties goofiness and some pretty decent atmosphere and suspense. One thing that went a long way towards saving it for me was the lensing from Daniel Yarussi (Vampire at Midnight) and the unique style of editor Martin Sadoff (Friday the 13th: The New Blood), who punched up a few of the sequences with some disorienting editing tricks, dissolves and slow-motion sequences that were pretty cool looking.
Audio/Video: Graduation Day (1981) arrives on Blu-ray from Troma in 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. As with many of the Troma reissues of film previously released by VS this appears to my eyes to be the same HD master prepared by VS for their previous release, a 4K restoration from the editor’s 35mm answer print. Grain structures are nicely managed, not as finely resolved as the OCN would have offered, but with nice textures, accurate skin tones and nice color reproduction. The film has a bit of soft lensing style though, so it's not overly crisp or eye-poppingly defined, but it typically looks very good. There are blemishes that pop-up by way of black digs and white speckling throughout, but overall I thought this looked rather solid. Of note, the VS release indicates that their edition is framed in 1.85:1, so I threw it on the VS Blu-ray to compare and it's definitely not 1.85:1, it is framed in the same 1.78:1 aspect ratio as the new Troma release.
Audio comes by way of English Dolby Digital 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. Frustratingly, like Full Moon it seems Troma is still allergic to including uncompressed audio, which the previous VS Blu-ray offered in DTS, but the lossy track does a decent enough job exporting the dialogue, score and effects of the film with some minimal hiss and pop. Even in Dolby Digital you will no doubt be rocking out to the sweet eighties sounds of rockers Felony all night long, or at least for what feels like an eight minute sequence that flashes back and forth between the convert footage and a woodland stalk and slash.
Onto the extras we get a mix of archival extras from the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray, plus a selection of "Tromatic Extras". The extras ported over from the VS release include an Audio Commentary with Producer David Baughn moderated by Elijah Drenner, plus a second Audio Commentary with The Hysteria Continues. We also get
thirty-minutes of the Vinegar Syndrome produced Interviews with director Herb Freed, actress Patch McKenzie, producer David Baughn and editor Martin Sardoff, plus the original Theatrical Trailer. Tromatic extras, include the 3-min DVD-era Classic introduction featuring Lloyd Kaufman, plus a carp-load of other stuff not specific to Graduation Day, including a 5-min Archival Interview with Scream Queen Linnea Quigley, trailers, and more.
The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a a single-sided sleeve of artwork which is basically the same artwork as the VS release, the original theatrical illustrated movie poster, but much lower resolution looking, with the Tromatic Special Edition banner at the top. The image is reversed compared to the VS release, and framed differently, but it's the same key art.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Producer David Baughn moderated by Elijah Drenner
- Audio Commentary with The Hysteria Continues
- Surviving the Class of '81: An Interview with Herb Freeb (12:16)
- Acting Out In School: An Interview with Star Patch Mackenzie (8:42)
- Graduation Days: An Interview with Producer David Baughn (11:28)
- Cutting Class: An Interview with Editor Martin Sadoff (7:14)
- Classic introduction featuring Lloyd Kaufman (2:59)
- Archival Interview with Scream Queen Linnea Quigley (4:33)
- Cannibal Lesbian Hoedown! (2:15)
- Innards! Music Video (1:50)
- Radiation March (0:55)
- Troma in Times Sqaure (1:01)
- TA in 4K (1:10)
- Coming Distractions: Coming Distractions: Curse of the Weredeer (1:50), #ShakespearesShitstorm (2:24), Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (3:42), Toxic Avenger (3:11), Class of Nuke 'Em High (2:56), Sweet Meats (2:06), Kill Dolly Kill (1:08), Eating Miss Campbell (1:37), Tromeo & Juliet (2:10)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2:04)
While there are quite a few better crafted slashers with gorier kills, Graduation Day is just so eighties and goofy I cannot help but kind of love it, plus we have Christopher George (sort of) classing it up. It's a fun high school slasher and recommend for fans of cheesy slasher whodunits. If you own the VS release there is no real reason to double-dip on this one, but this is a solid alternative that you can pick up for half the price of the VS release currently.
Screenshots from the Troma Blu-ray - Double-Click to Enlarge:
Extras:
Buy it!
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