Graduation Day (1981) (Tromatic Special Edition) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Herb Freed

Cast: Christopher George, Vanna White, Linnea Quigley

Release Date: September 8, 2026

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Release Rating: 6/10

Synopsis:

The Troma Team is proud to present the suspenseful, heart-stopping shocks and mystery of Graduation Day. It’s just weeks before high school graduation and members of the track team are being mysteriously and gruesomely murdered, one at a time. When the team’s star runner drops dead at the end of a championship meet, her sister Anne (Patch MacKenzie) comes to town and a series of grisly murders begin. Is Anne responsible? Or is it coach Michaels (Christopher George) who has been fired because of Laura’s death? Perhaps it’s the campus policeman who is disliked because of his over-zealous drug investigations? Or is it Laura’s boyfriend, Kevin (E. Danny Murphy), who can’t reconcile himself to Laura’s death? You won’t want to see Graduation Day alone!

The early ‘80s cult classic slasher ‘Graduation Day’ follows a group of kids days away from graduation who end up with far more to worry about than the ceremony. Following the unexpected death of a track star who died after completing a race, members of the school track team begin getting killed off in a brutal manner by a mysterious masked killer with a score to settle. As the body count continues to pile up and things get more hectic, the survivors will have to try and survive while uncovering the identity of the masked killer before the entire team is slaughtered.

‘Graduation Day’ was directed by Herb Freed from a screenplay by Anne Marisse and Herb Freed, and a story by David Baughn; Freed does a decent job at the helm of the silly slasher guiding along the over the top horror flick with cheesy fun around every turn. The film’s cast includes Christopher George, Vanna White, Linnea Quigley, Patch MacKenzie, E. Danny Murphy, Michael Pataki, E.J. Peaker and more and while some performances are better than others and many are fairly silly, they do all largely fit within the tone and vibe of the film.

‘Graduation Day’ was first unleashed upon moviegoers in 1981 during the height of the early slasher wave and it still manages to serve up a fun, cheesy and amusing slasher flick that never tries to be something big or flashy and continually embraces its B-movie roots at every turn as it offers up plenty of schlocky and bloody fun that’s as goofy as it is enjoyable. While this one will never stand alongside such classics as ‘Halloween’ as far as quality, it’s a classic in its own right and one that still holds up nicely in its own way for the cult audience.

In addition to the cheesy and bloody fun it offers, ‘Graduation Day’ is also notable for early performances by some bigger stars including what amounted to a big break for B-movie scream queen Linnea Quigley who earned one of the bigger roles in the film after the girl originally cast was unwilling to fulfill the nudity requirements and this only helped jump-start Quigley’s impressive career. On another fun note, everyone’s favorite Wheel of Fortune star Vanna White also appears here in an early role as one of the teens. While ‘Graduation Day’ isn’t going to be for everyone, if you’re a genre fan that enjoys a cheesy and fun slasher flick from the early ‘80s but you’ve never seen this one, it’s almost surely worth giving a shot whenever you have the chance.

The goofy and enjoyable 1981 slasher flick ‘Graduation Day’ returns home on Blu-ray in a new Tromatic Special Edition from the Troma Team and MVD. The new Blu-ray edition features a solid full High Definition presentation of the film that looks pretty decent especially considering the shape of the source elements, and the HD video is paired with a lossy dual mono Dolby Digital soundtrack which isn’t too bad in its own right and sounds pretty decent aside from the source issues noticeable at times.

This new Tromatic Special Edition of ‘Graduation Day’ also comes packed with a nice helping of supplements including two commentaries, plus numerous Interviews created for the previous Vinegar Syndrome release years back. While those that already own one of the previous editions on Blu-ray may not feel the need to double dip for this version, for those fans that don’t own the film on Blu-ray yet this one is probably worth adding to your collection, especially with it sporting a very reasonable price; going for just under 13 bucks on Amazon as of the time of this writing.

VIDEO:

The Tromatic Special Edition Blu-ray release of ‘Graduation Day’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with a 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty good as a whole considering the shape of the source materials and while the presentation isn’t overly sharp due to the soft style in which it was shot everything onscreen looks very decent with character specifics, kill sequences and everything else holding up quite well considering and capable representation of colors form jerseys to blood. There are plenty of noticeable pops, dirt specs and artifacts throughout that are clearly from the original master, yet if anything it only works in this film’s favor and helps it to really give off that old, B-movie slasher vibe. Overall, this is a solid High Definition presentation that looks good within the limits of the source material and fans should be generally pleased.

AUDIO:

The new Blu-ray release features a lossy 2.0 channel Dolby Digital dual-mono soundtrack at 192 kbps. This lossy soundtrack is a mixed bag and once again does feature some notable issues stemming from the source. Everything is generally clear and dialogue as well as action effects and music are largely clean and audible throughout without any dialogue or other elements becoming distorted or problematic. There is a noticeable hiss present throughout much of it along with an odd buzzing noise that stands out in a few spots, but otherwise it holds up pretty well; although unfortunately seems to have been downgraded to lossy Dolby Digital here as opposed to some of the previous editions which based on research appear to have included DTS-HD although I don’t personally have access to those versions to clarify specifics. Overall, this is a decent Dolby Digital soundtrack that isn’t marvelous but does its job fairly well outside of the unavoidable source issues.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Tromatic Special Edition Blu-ray release of ‘Graduation Day’ features a nice helping of bonus content including many Interviews created for the previous Vinegar Syndrome release years back. Included on the release are ‘2 Audio Commentaries’, the first of which is an ‘Audio Commentary with David Braughn’ and the second an ‘Audio Commentary with “The Hysteria Continues”’. Also included is the original ‘Introduction with Lloyd Kaufman’ (running approximately 3 minutes in length) along with various Interviews including ‘Surviving the Class of ’81: An Interview with Herb Freed’ (running approximately 12 minutes), ‘Acting Out in School: An Interview with Patch Mackenzie’ (approximately 9 minutes), ‘Graduation Day Blues: An Interview with David Braughn’ (11 minutes), ‘Cutting Class: An Interview with Martin Jay Sandoff’ (7 minutes) and an ‘Archival Interview with Linnea Quigley’ (4 minutes). Also included are the film’s ‘Original Theatrical Trailer’ (2 minutes) and a collection of various Troma promos and music videos.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Release Rating: 6/10

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‘Graduation Day: Tromatic Special Edition’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray from MVD & Troma Team

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You can purchase ‘Graduation Day: Tromatic Special Edition’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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