The Final Terror

The problem with The Final Terror is that the characters are too smart and the writers aren't smart enough. When danger descends upon their large group, they decide not to split up, but to stick it out together in case the killer tries something again. It leaves the finale without much tension since you never really feel like anyone's in danger. The music score is great and the forest atmosphere is haunting at times, but it can't help much when the film lacks suspense and danger.

(**1/2 out of *****)

Produced by Samuel Arkoff, this is one of those low-budget (albeit tolerably directed) jobs with several different titles ("The Campsite Murders" and "Forest Primeval" to name a couple) and two or three different release dates between 1980 and 1985 (I split the difference and went with ‘83, although the original release date is most likely ‘81, for those who care.) It's of interest mainly for featuring Darryl Hannah and Rachel Ward (not to mention Joe Pantoliano, from "Memento" and "The Sopranos") in early roles. The gals play the girlfriends of forest rangers out on a work detail in the woods who run across an unseen, homicidal maniac. There's a refreshingly low body count, but, given the number of potential victims who have little else to do but run around and whine, maybe the cast should have been reduced by two or three actors. Other than a couple of minor shocks here and there, there's also a lack of action and suspense. Come to think of it -- no gratuitous nudity, no excessive violence -- who exactly was this movie made for? The last third, with the survivors paddling down river in a big raft, starts to resemble a tame "Deliverance" (as well as other forest/slasher movies too numerous to name). There are pretty good killer-in-the-woods flicks ("Just Before Dawn") and there are really bad killer-in-the-woods flicks ("Berserker"), and this one sits somewhere just south of the border. Davis went on to direct big-budget action movies (including "Under Siege" and Harrison Ford's "The Fugitive").

HIGHLIGHT: I'm being generous to go with a highlight for this one, but I kinda liked the part where the killer was hit with a giant, swinging log studded with sharp spikes. It reminded me of a Road Runner cartoon.

More well known for its soon-to-be star cast than for the film itself, The Final Terror kinda came and went in theaters and was dumped onto video via a terrible, washed out and impossibly dark transfer where you couldn't tell what was what.

Thankfully, Scream Factory have found a print that looks half way decent and released it on Blu-Ray. For the first time, one can actually see that there was some talent involved here, even if it was in service of a less than exciting narrative.

While the story seems like your average "young hot people getting killed in the woods" flick, The Final Terror does offer some fairly inventive twists. For starters, the killer is a genuinely unnerving presence, blending into trees and shrubbery using camo gear. Also, the cast of characters, while slightly undefined, are smarter than your usual lot. When they get the first inkling of danger, they don't split up or start humping each other - they actually stick together and work as a team.

The only downside to these smart characters is that there are only two murders before the gang catches on (unless you count the completely unrelated prologue), so it doesn't leave room for a lot of isolated attack scenes or extra murders to brighten up the pacing and keep the danger alive. If only one or two of them had to go pee or something...

Susan Justin's score is pretty cool, too, and keeps things exciting.

Young forest rangers and their lady friends take a trip into the wilderness and are terrorized by a woodsy maniac.

Yet another slasher in the wake of Friday the 13th (1980), this one being OK as it tries to be a little different from the rest of its kind. This film tries to focus a little more on mood and suspense, rather than on gore and sex, although it does have it's share of that too. With the help of a decent cast, featuring some latter-day stars like Hannah and Ward, The Final Terror manages to be an entertaining enough effort. There's a few shocks, a good rock music score, and a creepy villain that also help carry the movie.

It's a far cry from the superior likes of Just Before Dawn (1981), but it certainly beats the lesser efforts of movies like Don't Go in the Woods (1981) or The Prey (1984).

** 1/2 out of ****

THE FINAL TERROR is an average horror movie. There were a couple of startling moments (the scene when the couple gets hacked or the sudden ending) but the bulk of the movie is really dull. The atmosphere is almost worthwhile. Almost. You see, the film is not gruesome enough or sweat-inducing enough to push the atmosphere into the dread-filled nightmare that a story like this needs in order to be memorable. We see a lot of moments where the people just hang around the campfire and bitch about this and that. And when the group goes to the the dilapidated house, all dressed up like Rambo, what little edge the film had disappeared instantly with that unintentionally funny bit. The idea of the young men and women taking a pro-active stance against the killer, in one united group, is original for a horror movie of this type but it's badly done here.

The big problem with the movie is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. Something tells me the director didn't want to do just another horror movie. But every aspect of the movie is so weak that FINAL TERROR cannot overcome its horror trappings. The characters are almost nonexistent. Rachel Ward and the black girl have accents but where never told where they come from or how did they ever land in such a remote area. Because of this, and the fact that some actors are really miscast, there's very little credibility to the whole proceedings. It feels like the film was put together very quickly and with very little thought behind it.

The script is very weak. No characterization. No idea what to do with the dull bunch. No immediate sense of dread. We have no clue what's out there until the very end. And to make things even more annoying, the action often takes place at night and there are several moments when it's difficult to see what's going on. These dark scenes reminded me of HUMONGOUS. But unlike the underrated Canadian movie, FINAL TERROR's pitch black moments weren't deliberate. They were badly shot moments (made more confusing with the bad editing) which muddled up what little action there was in the story. The cinematography was excellent when there was light or the action took place during the day but the night time scenes, or even those scenes that took place in and around the cabin, were too dark for my taste.

The film gets interesting at the very end, but like many have pointed out already, the end is very sudden and abrupt. Too abrupt. The brief glimpse of the killer made me realize how dull and boring the young folks were. When a piece of walking rug with a knife is more interesting than the main characters of the movie, you know there's something wrong with the film.

But FINAL TERROR wasn't the worst film I've ever seen. Compared to DON'T GO IN THE WOODS, FINAL TERROR looks like a work of genius. It's just that there's very little going for it except for some beautiful scenery, one good murder scene, a creepy, under-used killer and a somewhat memorable (but sudden) ending.