Departing Seniors

The horror movie element isn’t even the most compelling part of the horror movie “Departing Seniors.” There’s no real tension in this murder mystery (or much mystery, for that matter), the kills aren’t clever, and eventually this part of the story ends up feeling entirely unnecessary. 

More intriguing in the feature filmmaking debut from Clare Cooney is the unwanted psychic ability our put-upon teenage hero discovers he has. Queer, Mexican-American outcast Javier (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) tumbles down a flight of stairs at school while the jock jerks are bullying him, as usual, and suffers a serious bump on the head. When he regains consciousness in the hospital, he discovers he can see people’s pasts or futures just by touching them or even contacting something they’ve touched. This is not exactly information he needs in his brain, especially once a killer goes on a rampage in the days before graduation and he finds he can do nothing to stop the bloodshed.