Final Summer

I agree with everything previous critiques said. The plot is the biggest failure here, running neck and neck with the visual quality of the film.

I did not understand how "everyone knew who was responsible" when there wasn't any real backstory on the camp yet, other than "accidents" that plagued the camp for years. Which makes no sense, because even in the 70s & 80s, a camp THAT notorious would've been closed down easily.

Add to that the visual quality I mentioned, I don't know what that was about. Is he trying to make the actors look younger with a failed soft focus technique? Is he trying to make it look like a movie from the early 90s (which would've been shot on film and not on video)? If so, color correcting it to look like an older movie and adding noise and a film effect overlay might've gone a lot further and wouldn't have been super expensive.

Instead, we have a movie that looks like the director just discovered this thing called depth of field, and manhandled the technique throughout the feature. Instead of being interesting or helping the movie look old, it only serves to distract.

It's too bad, too, because low budget doesn't guarantee a bad movie. Lack of imagination and poor filming choices sure will, though.

I would have give a better review if the movie was so out of focus. I'm guessing the people who made this movie must have bought their camera from a yard sale that wasn't in a good condition. Or either the director has bad eye sights and doesn't realized the film is out of focus? Either way, they should have done better than that. However the movie itself was okay, some cheesy kills that isn't possible was there, lol! But overall it was okay and the camera view was bad out of focus so that's really will hit the ratings for sure as I only give 4 stars for it. I don't like to watch a movie that isn't very clear. They need to improve and learn from their mistakes not to use cheap cameras.

I would be interested to see what they could have pulled off with a bigger budget and a more seasoned director and cast. Not a terrible movie by any means, but as I said before, it just falls a little flat. The kills aren't particularly good, nor was there anything original. The story was very straight forward and basic until towards the end when there was a predictable "twist." Acting was not very good (not that I'm looking for Oscar caliber performances) I feel they could have done better. A movie like this could have been fine without much originality, but for me it failed to capture the atmosphere of an 80's or early 90's slasher.

Final Summer has been ridiculously praised as a tribute to Friday the 13th. This horrendous movie is merely a flat-out rip-off from that highly successful film franchise.

With its' simplistic dialogue and atrocious acting while witnessing buffoons as they wander aimlessly through the woods, Final Summer also compares to the cemetery scenes of Plan Nine from Outer Space.

Ed Wood at the least created an unintentionally hilarious good-bad movie. Far more than John Isberg had accomplished with Final Summer.

Of course, no lame slasher flick would be complete without the obligatory scenes of a masked maniac seemingly incapacitated and the intended victims running off instead of killing him. No surprise whatsoever when the maniac then arises, takes hold of his weapon which was conveniently lying next to him and easily continues his killing spree.

Call it a tribute if you wish, but Final Summer then manages an obvious variation to a storyline copied directly from the conclusion from Friday the 13th.

A quote from Oscar Wilde states, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" Final Summer however is a completely pointless and absurd fiasco.

On the final night of their employment in the sticks of Illinois, several camp counselors are assaulted by a masked man with an axe.

"Final Summer" (2023) is a proficiently-made Indie slasher in the tradition of the first two "Friday the 13th" flicks from over four decades earlier. The sylvan cinematography is great, there's an effective air of creepiness with a full moon and fog, plus the diverse actors are convincing. Unfortunately, the director/writer failed in one of the most important areas -- an interesting or, at least, entertaining script. It doesn't help that the females are subpar (and I'm not talkin' 'bout nudity or sleaze).

It's like he said, "Beautiful women? We don't need no stinkin' beautiful women." I can accept that, but at least make the story compelling with fleshed-out characters. The contemporaneous "Totally Killer" is a fine example of a modern slasher that's entertaining. "Silent Retreat" (2016) is a good sample of a no-budget production that's a watchable slasher with the requisite staples. "Crazy Lake" and "The Lake on Clinton Road" are two other relatively recent examples.

So "Final Summer" is an interesting study: It's got practically everything for an effective traditional slasher, but drops the ball with boring storytelling, uninteresting characters and subpar females.

The film runs 1 hours, 22 minutes, and was shot at Camp Robert Drake, which is just southeast of Oakwood in east-central Illinois, a dozen miles from the border of Indiana. The flashback scenes were done in Champaign, which is 25 miles west of there.

GRADE: D+