GRADUATION DAY (2015) * ½
Let’s get this out of the way before we do anything else. Graduation Day isn’t a remake of the ‘80s horror movie. It’s actually another useless Found Footage flick. That means that we have to deal with a LOT of shaky-cam nonsense. The good news is that it’s mercifully short (74 minutes) and contains a neat April Fool’s Day inspired twist ending. That isn’t enough to save it, but it’s certainly far from the worst Found Footage horror film I’ve seen.
Drunken teenagers decide to leave a house party and go to the beach for some cliff diving. A girl says she can't swim, so one of the dumbasses throws her off the cliff. When she drowns, the teens conspire to cover the whole thing up. Nine months later, on graduation day, the teens receive a DVD from a mysterious blackmailer containing footage of them disposing of the body. They proceed to argue endlessly about what to do and eventually, a killer (dressed in a cap and gown) begins to kill them off one by one.
So, basically, it’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, except that everyone films themselves with cameras the whole time.
The bare bones of an okay story are here, it’s just that the shaky-cam shit gets old quick. It also doesn't help that all the characters are annoying jocks who call women “bitches” and men “pussies”. Because of that, it’s hard to care about what happens to any of them. Their taste in music is terrible too, which makes the party sequences a chore to get through.
Even though I like the ending on principle, there are a lot of gaping holes in the logic. (Warning: Spoilers to follow.) First off, the scene where our hero sneaks into school to retrieve the condemning footage from his locker is dumb. I mean, he’s already graduated and out of school. Why would he keep footage of a murder in his locker? Wouldn’t a janitor or somebody find it?
Throughout the movie, there are scenes where people Face Time our hero while they’re being stalked by the killer. At first, the idea of someone who films themselves while being chased by a killer instead of calling the cops is stupid. Once you realize everyone is playing an elaborate prank on him, it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the fact that a teenager would waste an entire year of her life by going into hiding and faking her death just to jump up months later and say, “Ooooh, I got you good!”
Another thing that doesn’t make sense: It’s a Found Footage movie, but there are still random slow motion shots when hot girls walk by. Actually, there is lots of slow motion throughout the film. The only reason I can see for this is that they had to pad out the running time to get it up to 74 minutes.
As bad as much of the flick is, I will admit there is at least one good scene in which the teens conspire to cover up the body. The reason it works is because it feels exactly like something a privileged kid would do to keep from getting into trouble. You can definitely see how horseplay could escalate to accidental death, and eventually a coldblooded cover-up. That, along with the decent ending, isn’t enough to make it all worthwhile, but it keeps it from being a total waste.
For more Found Footage reviews, check out my latest book, Revenge of the Video Vacuum, on sale now at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Video-Vacuum-Mitch-Lovell/dp/1519142331/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483712787&sr=1-3