Killer Graduation
Graduation is Friday, the traditional “Senior Lock In” is Thursday night, but today Monday is just another day for Javier Campos, hanging with best friend Bianca, sniping with valedictorian and class president Ginny in their Advanced Placement English over whose final paper on Herman Melville is the best, Mister Arda patiently trying to keep order, while hoping that mysterious transfer student William might finally open up to him in some way.
Ginny queen of the cool cruel kids, football captain Trevor her boyfriend and his bestie Brad rolling along behind whichever way the wind blows, unwilling to let the slight stand she plans an ambush for the sake of spite, Javier’s expected role of submissive victim not one he intends to play when he fights back against the two bigger boys, Brad enraged and ashamed, pursuing Javier who is pushed down a stairwell, the impact opening a door in his mind, seeing revelations about the people around him and the supposed suicide of swimmer Phil Casey the week before.
A sly high school slasher horror comedy pitched somewhere between Scream and Heathers with Billy Loomis namechecked as well as students named after John Carpenter characters and passages from Moby Dick quoted as murders are passed of as series of tragic teen suicides which can’t be allowed to interfere with class timetables, Killer Graduation is directed by Clare Cooney from a script by Jose Nateras which has profiled its target audience carefully.
Finding he has inherited the psychic powers of his aunt and experiencing flashes of the past and future, enlightening but never particularly useful, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio is Javier while Ireon Roach is Bianca, savvy, sassy and in need of sensitivity training, always ready with a wildly inappropriate comment when Javier needs emotional support, and Yani Gellman is Mister Arda, not only the only sympathetic teacher but apparently the only teacher at Springhurst High.
With Sasha Kuznetov as the complicated and closeted Brad, his fumbled apology to Javier for not being as strong as him genuinely moving, Cameron Scott Roberts is Trevor, immediately placing locker room conditions on his friendship with Brad “to protect the team” when he is outed, while Maisie Merlock’s Ginny is every bit as tragic as the victims, determined to be first at all costs as her only avenue of escape from her mother and unable to comprehend anyone ever being kind to her unless there is something to gain.
High school an unpleasant necessity for all but the few luckiest kids, for those marked as being outsiders who become the target of bullies it is a particular Hell which must be endured even when homicide is not on the curriculum, Killer Graduation, also known as Departing Seniors, capturing the distressing truth even in the fantastical leavened by the witty script, the final act perhaps not as smooth as it might have been but certainly no reason to dismiss class ahead of time.
Killer Graduation will be streaming on the Arrow platform from Friday 7th February
