LAST OF THE GRADS Review–Old School Slasher Throwback
Slasher starring Jessica Lang, Jadon Cal, and Charlies White Jr.
Written by Jay Jenkins and Collin Kliewe
Directed by Jay Jenkins and Collin Kliewe
Synopsis: A class of graduating high school seniors, nearing the crossroads of their lives, celebrate their last night together at the annual school lock-in. They never could have guessed that they’re about to encounter the harbinger of death, the legendary ‘Coast to Coast killer’.
Last of the Grads, released this past weekend by Keyway Pictures, is a respectable contemporary throwback to the seminal slashers of yesteryear. With a high concept hook, a masked killer, and increasingly gruesome deaths scenes (thankfully rendered with stellar practical effects work), Last of the Grads, no different than the central graduation lock-in that figures into its plot, is a wistful reminder of the knives of horror past.
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Like those antecedent slasher soirees, however, Last of the Grads similarly suffers from uneven acting, an inexplicably protracted prologue, and pacing that falls when it should rise and rises when it should fall. Running nearly two-hours long, Last of the Grads takes an unusually long time to arrive at its raison d’etre, chiefly the unencumbered slaughtering of droves of callow high schoolers locked away for the night in their school gymnasium.
When the killings come, it’s gloriously framed. There’s verisimilitude to the setting and staging, and all of it looks wonderful, Halloween by way of Southern Gothic, with a swampy Florida setting and fluid camerawork that belies its small budget. Hapless teens are chased across fields, coeds are smashed in office copiers, and heads are bisected with relative ease. It’s an old-school slasher refracted through the new kids on the block.
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Abounding with a roster of eighties influences, Last of the Grads is most effective when trying something new. The prologue, though too long and tonally sequestered from the rest of the film, is nonetheless an admirable effort to imbue Grads with mythic grandeur and weight. Jessica Lang’s protagonist Emma Bradley, too, is given considerable time to breathe and develop. Granted, that development was stale even forty years ago– she’s in love, afraid of leaving home, fears what life post-grad will look like in the trite way high schoolers are wont to do– but the commitment to developing her before the killings begin does add a veneer of stakes to the third act bloodbath.
It’s when Last of the Grads borrows liberally from other properties, though, that the seams start to show, a patchwork monster of other, better horror efforts. Perhaps unintentionally, Last of the Grads is, at times, 2021’s Hatchet, a mimic of Adam Green’s sensational 2006 bayou butcher. The Coast-to-Coast killer, though, is no Victor Crowley, less beignet bogeyman and more faceless, nebulous slasher.
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Long stretches of Last of the Grads feel like a modern attempt to emulate the Hatchet formula. From the verdant Southern setting to the trolley-like move from one gore-centric set piece to the next. As noted, that gore is sensational. One particular death calls to mind the best of what 2018’s Halloween reboot had to offer. But it feels at odds with the dutiful character work that populates much of the earlier film. American Graffiti meets Halloween, per the film’s marketing.
Last of the Grads, however, doesn’t have Green’s morbid sense of humor. Nor does it have horror heavyweights to pop in and out of frame in cameo. I’m looking at you, Tony Todd. Perhaps most fatally, it lacks the tactility of it all. Weighty deaths, including some killer-on-nerd action in the school locker room, lack a visceral impact; a combination of audio mixing and compromised staging– blood simply spills when it should surge.
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As a low-budget, debut feature, however, Last of the Grads delivers. Caveats notwithstanding, there’s no accounting for the pure, unbridled pleasure of watching hapless teens mowed down by a masked slasher. One time or one hundred times, the thrill never wanes. Despite its sundry influences, Last of the Grads endeavors to harken back to that golden age of bountiful gore and adolescent devilry. It’s an imperfect effort, but I’m looking forward to what Jay Jenkins and Collin Kliewe deliver next.
Last of the Grads is currently available to rent through Keyway Pictures.
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Last of the Grads
Summary
Old school to a fault, Last of the Grads is still a dark, bloody, and rollicking slasher throwback.
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