Final Embrace

The following capsule review was written in 1992, when this film debuted on home video, and appeared in a daily newspaper. And yes, I totally ripped off Joe Bob Briggs in my final paragraphs in those days.

FINAL EMBRACE (Rated R) - New Horizons Home Video: Score another low-budget bullseye for producer Roger Corman. This grittily little thriller offers up more inventive filmmaking and surprising twists than many recent A-list mysteries - and it's biggest marquee name is Dick Van Patten!

When a rock video superstar is iced, her twin sister (Nancy Valen) teams up with a rough L. A. cop (Robert Russell from Crisis In The Kremlin) to track down the killer (who could logically be just about anybody in the cast). Natch, we're kept guessing right up until the last three minutes when we're treated to one of the most nerve-tweaking endings ever seen in a B-flick.

The final score: eight body count; three totalled cars; four popped tops; two supremely naughty bits; gratuitous Dick Van Patten; two decent songs, "Oblivion" and "Touch Me In The Dark", sung by Nancy Valen; and a well-rounded script co-penned by Jim Wynorski, the director of the recent 976-EVIL 2.