Graduation Day Movie Review

Trailer here.

Graduation Day is a 1981 horror movie directed by Herb Freed and starring Christopher George, Linnea Quigley, Michael Pataki.

A girl called Laura dies on the running track during a meet. A few months later, her sister Anne, arrives back in town to attend a graduation ceremony at the high school where her sister will be honoured. She is in the Navy. She sees one of Laura's friends, Paula. She is jogging through town. Someone is following her. She gets killed by the person. Paula's teammates are waiting for her. When she doesn't show up, they have to take their team picture without her. Anne calls to see her mother. She looks around Laura's room. Anne's stepfather isn't happy to see her. Someone has a photo of the running team and is crossing off Paula's face. Anne goes to the graduation ceremony rehearsal. She visits Laura's boyfriend, Kevin. She gives him the graduation present that Laura had bought for him.

Coach Michaels(George) is hard on the running team. He expects perfection. He yells at one of the girls, Sally. She is alone in the locker room and someone is in there with her. It is the killer who has a fencing sword. She ends up dead. Anne blames Coach Michaels for Laura's death. She thinks that he pushed her too hard. Another member of the track team meets a grisly end. Principal Guglione(Pataki) gets calls about missing students. An Inspector Halliday shows up at the school to investigate. He is interested in the students and what has been going on. The principal thinks that it is a prank. The inspector thinks that maybe they are off somewhere partying.

More students start to die. The inspector goes to see Coach Michaels. He asks him some questions. The coach gets fired. Sally's dead body pops up . Coach Michaels finds it and people think that he is the killer. Kevin chases him and they have a fight. Coach Michaels runs, Kevin follows and so does the inspector and Anne. The coach finds another body in the woods and Kevin is revealed to the killer.

He is bitter because of Laura's death. He tries to kill the coach too with a knife. Coach Michaels gets the knife when the inspector arrives and shoots the coach as he thinks that he is the killer. Anne goes to see Kevin and she goes up to his room where Laura's body is sitting. Kevin catches her and admits to digging her body up and bringing her back to his house. He tells her that they are getting married. Anne is horrified. Kevin turns on her.

She pushes the body and it forces Kevin out of the window. He isn't dead though and he carries Laura's body back into the house. Anne runs back to the school. Kevin is there. They fight and he chases her. She finds the dead students. Kevin gets impaled on a spike and he dies. Anne leaves the town after her ordeal. This was a fun slasher with a little bit of gore. I liked that it was a mystery also and there were lots of suspects. The characters were generic, but I don't think that it matters much. I liked this movie. It is an entertaining 80's slasher and I recommend it to fans of the genre. I will give it a 5/10.

The Prey Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Prey is a 1983 horror movie directed by Edwin Brown and starring Steve Bond, Debbie Thureson, Jackie Coogan and Carel Struycken.

The films starts in 1948. There are fires in the woods in a place called The Northpoint, Keen Wild in Colorado. The fire wipes out some gypsies who live in the woods. Cut to present day and a couple are camping in the woods in the same place. Someone is watching them. They get killed. A group of people are coming to Keen Wild forest to camp. They meet forest ranger Mark O'Brien(Jackson Bostwick). There are six of them. Nancy(Thureson), Joel(Bond), Gail, Greg, Skip and Bobbie(Lori Lethin). They make camp in the woods. Gail gets left behind. She thinks that something has followed her back to camp. They find out that the gypsies were actually burned by the locals because one of them was accused of raping a local girl. Only one of them survived. He was a giant child at the time.

That night, Gail and Greg hear something. Greg goes to see what it is and Gail gets attacked. Greg is next. They both die. The next morning, the others are baffled by their disappearance. All of their belongings have gone. A man called Lester Tile(Coogan) gets a call from the police saying that a couple have gone missing in the forest. Lester is the head ranger and he takes it seriously. They are the couple who were murdered at the start of the film. The group search for Greg and Gail. When they can't find them, they decide to go on without the couple. They leave a note at the camp for them. Lester talks to Mark and they talk about the missing couple. Lester tells him that he saw the giant child who survived the fire. He tells Mark that he was burned. Mark tells him that he will have a look around and he takes a tranquilliser gun.

Joel and Skip go climbing down the mountain. Mark sees buzzards eating something. It is a body. He recognises Gail. Skip gets killed next and Joel falls off the mountain when his rope is severed. Bobbie and Nancy come running where they hear a scream. They find Skip's body. Nancy finds the cut rope.

The killer approaches them. Bobbie falls into a trap and she is killed. Nancy is left alone with the killer. Mark happens to see them and he shoots at the killer with his tranquilliser gun. He manages to tackle him and knock him out. Unfortunately, the killer is strong. He kills Mark. He takes Nancy to his cave.

The film ends with a baby's cry suggesting that she has been with him and has given birth to his child.

This was a decent slasher movie. It was entertaining and there were some lovely nature scenes. The acting was so so but overall, it was good. The killer was played by the same guy who played the giant in Twin Peaks. I always enjoy films set in the woods or with a camping theme. It makes for a fun horror film. This one is better than some I have seen. I recommend it and I will give it a 5/10.