Labor Day begins on the night of Chesteron High’s spring prom. Kelly (newcomer girl-next-door Rebecca Gillis) and her boyfriend Gene (slasher flick veteran Roy Clark) are kissing in the back of Gene’s Camaro and things are moving into more intimate territory. Kelly protests at first, but eventually gives in to Gene’s advances and they consumate their relationship. Their love scene is tastefully shot for a piece of this era and, given what follows over the remaining 90 minutes, show a great amount of restraint and class on the part of director Russ Kohl. The post-coital scene in particular, with the two discussing their potential future after Kelly graduates in a year (Gene is set to graduate the following month), beautifully captures what it means to be in love and thinking only of the perfect future. One could use these beginning moments to prologue an entirely different film, one that would be hailed as a classic of the high school romance genre, instead of the gutter-trash sleaze it turns into. Not that its turning into gutter-trash sleaze is a bad thing.

As the camera fades to black on the smiling couple, we flash-forward one month and find Kelly hovering over a pregnancy test. She seems worried, and rightfully so. We soon learn she is pregnant, most likely with Gene’s child. Kelly leaves her house in a frantic state and heads for Gene’s. Upon arriving, she finds his house deserted. Indeed, it’s almost as if no one has lived there in years; the lawn is overgrown and dust covers every surface inside.

She decides to keep the pregnancy a secret until she can find Gene; she figures no one will notice for a month or two. It soon turns out, however, that there is something very strange about Kelly’s pregnancy. She begins to grow at an abnormal rate, and within a few weeks, her belly is protruding as if she were several months pregnant.

Then the dreams begin. She’s tortured with visions of monsters and demons and she can see her child as it will appear as an adult. It’s a hideous creature, with a dozen eyes and razor-sharp claws. The effects in the dream sequences are occasionally effective, if a little hokey. However, some of the make-up is too obvious and pulled this reviewer out of the movie just when things were starting to get interesting.

A few months pass. In a well-edited but ultimately useless montage, we see Kelly’s trials and tribulations in dealing with her strange pregnancy. She’s teased at school. Her parents find out about the pregnancy and kick her out. She takes to living out of a suitcase in Gene’s empty house. It would’ve been nice to see actual scenes, instead of a montage. Emotion was handled so well during earlier sequences that it would’ve been good to see how it all played out with her parents.

One night, as Kelly’s sleeping, she hears something coming from Gene’s basement. She goes down to investigate and finds a hole leading deep into the earth. Crawling down the hole, Kelly ends up in a dark corridor. A dim light flickers at one end. She inches further into the darkness toward the light’s source.

By this point in the film, this reviewer had started to guess what was going on, and it turns out I was almost right. Gene does make a return appearance in the last third of the film, but he looks much different than we’ve seen him before. He offers a bit of an explanation as to what’s going on with Kelly’s pregnancy and what the baby is supposed to be and the job it has.

Of course, the film wouldn’t be called Labor Day if Kelly didn’t go into labor at some point. And indeed she does. It’s a graphic sequence and the make-up effects work well. There is a bit of a twist ending, so it’s no surprise that a sequel, Labor Day 2: The Second Child, was planned but never filmed. A few dismissive critics claim Labor Day rips off certain elements from Rosemary’s Baby and while it’s true there are certain similarities, Labor Day goes in some distinct directions that are all its own. For instance, the being that is birthed from Kelly’s womb is not quite human, but it possesses a beautiful singing voice. Once the creature opens one of its many mouths and the singing begins, the movie becomes one of the most original I’ve ever seen. The effects are top-notch during these moments and the song is actually quite catchy.

Film buffs might recognize director Russ Kohl as a supposed alias of Trigger & Sledge director Russell Kandar. This has never been confirmed by Liberty Pictures and the elusive Kandar has never stepped forward to take credit for the film. If it is true, however, then Kandar had grown a lot as a filmmaker in the time between T&S and Labor Day. He’d learned much about pacing, save for that one unwanted montage mentioned previously, and showed a great deal of potential directing supernatural horror films and musical sequences. It is believed that Kandar is either living a J.D. Salinger-esque lifestyle or is dead. Either way, we may never see another horror film like this.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Labor Day over a long weekend. I promise you won’t be able to get the demon child’s song out of your head for at least a week.