One
week prior to their high school graduation, a group of students are given the
task of decorating the school gymnasium for the upcoming ceremony. While some
are more than happy to help, others aren't too keen with having to give up a
Saturday evening. Meanwhile, Principal O'Hara is faced with a budget crisis
that may end with the next school year being the private institution's last.
Already cutting financial corners by holding the graduation ceremony on school
grounds and using her students as slave labor, Mrs. O'Hara weighs the pros and
cons of a fiduciary opportunity presented to her that may save the school from
closing. Elsewhere, one student, excluded from attending the graduation
ceremony, breaks into the school with the sole purpose of wreaking havoc. For
the students and faculty of this once-esteemed institution, the worst is yet to
come: someone has stolen a ceremonial cap and gown and seems to have access to
an arsenal of weaponry, their sole mission to ensure that the school colors run
blood red.
Way
back when, say the late `90s or the early stages of the 21st century, the IMDb
was an unreliable film museum of sorts; even more so than it is today
(thankfully, the IMDb has tightened ship, as it were, on user submissions). One
such piece of film history that only true die-hards of the slasher movie
sub-genre may know about or, even remember, is a little movie called Gory
Graduation.
Starring Lesleh Donaldson (Curtains, Happy Birthday To Me) and a few
other memorable scream queens and kings from the early `80s, a plot description
was non-existent as was any crew information. The film languished in obscurity.
So obscure was it, actually, that it never really existed.
Until
now.
“I
can remember spending years searching for any information on this elusive
title, being then as much of a slasher completist as I am today and getting
absolutely nowhere,” remarks Joseph Henson, director of Gory Graduation. “I
thought to myself, here is a film, with such a provocative title, that NEEDS to
be made.”
Of
course, through the advent of social media, enough information was finally
unearthed to determine the film was nothing more than a fake title, stirred up
by someone who, like Henson, probably wanted to make it but never did. The
title was eventually removed from the IMDb and that was that. But boy, if you
were active during the golden years of the alt.horror newsgroup or the birth of
now-infamous horror sites, you remember the stir that was caused by this
elusive title that was nothing more than chicanery.
Of course, Henson and cohort Nathan Johnson (who co-wrote and
co-directed The Night Before Easter with Henson) would promise themselves time
and time again they’d eventually make their very own slasher one day (they are
two of the biggest fans of the sub-genre possible, even being half of the
wildly popular Trans-Atlantic, all-slasher podcast, The Hysteria Continues)
even though they knew next to nothing about actual film making. They finally
got their chance to make their own slasher with The Night Before Easter (2014),
an exceptionally low-budget effort shot on a Canon T3i with little else in the
way of equipment or budget. “The Night Before Easter, as clunky as it is, was a
massive learning experience for us. Since wrapping that movie, we've spent
hours upon hours, days upon days, and weeks turning into months soaking up
knowledge on film making. How to stage scenes, internal camera settings, sound
design, lighting, et al. We couldn’t afford to do a lot of things on The Night
Before Easter but we plan to take what we've learned from that experience, on
top of a (hopefully) much larger budget and go from clunk to spunk, as it
were,” notes Henson and Johnson.
“We’re
proud of The Night Before Easter all things considered,” says Henson, “…but
with Gory Graduation, we really want to up the stakes internally and externally
– if The Night Before Easter was sub-Roger Corman, we hope Gory Graduation will
be sub-Argento in style, fluidity and consistency.”
The
plot concerns a graduation ceremony that becomes the stomping grounds for a
killer decked out in ceremonial robes. It is, at its core, a no-nonsense
slasher film with a massive body count and lots of gore, nudity and, above all,
likable characters.
"I'd
like to think of it as some sort of strange melange of films: the intensity and
gore of something like High Tension, the John Waters-esque buffoonery of the
fifth Friday The 13th film (A New Beginning) and, say, the "throw twists
and see what sticks" nature of Happy Birthday To Me," Henson remarks.
"...and of course, lots of blood and ample nudity - sometimes
together!"
Nathan
Johnson remarks, "One thing we take seriously is criticism. The Night
Before Easter wasn't a perfect film but it was a lot of fun and I think a lot
of the positive feedback we garnered speaks for itself. A lot of filmmakers
read their critiques and sulk; we take that and try to apply it to what we're
working on next: in this case, Gory Graduation. It's going to be a lot of
fun."
Gory
Graduation has finished the script and casting process and Henson and Johnson
are currently raising a budget to purchase more equipment and to hire a much
larger cast/crew, on top of locking down a local high school (with, thankfully,
a laid-back principal who has given the go-ahead in determination of budget).
“We
feel that The Night Before Easter was a trial run, a get your feet wet sort of
thing, or a rough draft into something better. I had a rudimentary knowledge of
editing and went in knowing little to nothing else. Nathan and I were
essentially two guys throwing something together with little money and very few
resources, but all things considered, we think we made… Something. With Gory
Graduation, we’re going to erase the mistakes we made and triple the stuff that
worked,” Henson concludes.
Fundraiser: http://igg.me/at/gorygraduation/x/8730882
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gory.Graduation
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoryGraduation
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