A NEW EXPERIENCE IN FEAR!





[title] The Final Terror
[year] 1984
[rated] R
[duration] minutes
[director] Andrew Davis
[written by] Jon George & Neill Hicks.
[screen] fullscreen
[starring] John Freidrich, Adrien Zmed, Darryl Hannah, Rachel Ward, Ernest Harden, Jr, and Joe Pantoliano.


[brief plot synopsis]
A barrage of violence hits a group of campers on a camping trip as a mysterious, merciliess killer moves in on the victims. The tension mounts to an extraordinary level and shock follows shock as they are caught in a terrifying sequence of bloodshed and murder.


[good things]
The cast was pretty strong with a very young Darryl Hannah and Joe Pantoliano. The story wasn't at all unique, but it was a tiny-bit interesting. The setting was great, reminded me of a rain forest on the Amamzon River... well maybe not, but close.


[the bad]
This movie was made in the midst of the slasher craze, and is an obvious attempt to cash in. Usually we get gems like The Burning or Madman. This time we got The Final Terror. This film is complete with many of the typical slasher cliches like a campfire scene to tell the story of the local lunatic, however this one went a bit further like The Burning to completely replicate the original campfire scene in Friday The 13th: Part 2, right down to the scare after the story was told... and did it quite poorly. The blood and gore was pathedic and few and far between. The killer and why the killer was killing was laughable.


[final thoughts]
I read many reviews where this movie was compared to Friday The 13th, so I decided to check it out. It's unfortunate that the movie turned out to be not-so-great. Another film that has alot of promise, but turns out to be very hard to watch. Joe Pantoliano has very little screen time, but really does a great job with what he does. The movie ends with alot of question marks. The story told around the campfire is about a boy who breaks his mental mother out of a mental home, and she goes into the woods and killes, yadda, yadda... Anyways I think that Joe Pantoliano's character was supposed to be that boy, and the killer his mother. He tried to warn the campers not to be in the woods, and he then became the obvious "Red Herring".


[my rating]
I give this movie 1 out of 5 for blood and gore.
1.5 out of 5 for the plot.
2 out of 5 for characters.
1.5 out of 5 overall.





Screen captures of the movie courtesy of Vestron Video.




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