Final Exam (1981 dir:
Jimmy Huston; cast: Cecile Bagdadi, Joel S. Rice, Ralph Brown,
DeAnna Robbins, Sherry Willis-Burch, John Fallon, Terry W.
Farren, Timothy L. Raynor, Sam Kilman, Don Hepner, Mary Ellen
Withers)
I
first saw
Final Exam in the 1980s at the now defunct Continental Theater
on Austin Street, in Forest Hills, NY. Back then the poster's tag
line was: "They survived four years of college, but will they
survive ... the Final Exam!"
I thought it was okay slasher film. I later bought a copy on Beta
and watched it again every five or six years, albeit
Final Exam loses its appeal over time. Before writing this
review in 2011, I rented it on DVD from the library, and yes,
Final Exam is a bad film.
Why do I watch it? As a hardcore horror fan, I'm often in the mood
for a poor horror film that I've seen several times, to a new film
of another genre.
That said,
Final Exam is one of the more boring of the 1980s slasher
films. It opens with the slasher killing a college couple in a
car. Then a prank killing. Then ... nothing happens. Not until
we're nearly 55 minutes into the film.
That's too long for nothing to happen. Yet for the film's first
two thirds,
Final Exam focuses on the hijinks of some nondescript college
kids. The Slut, the Ditsy Girl, the Good Girl, the Nerdy Guy, and
two Frat Jocks. They're not interesting; their dialog and
situations are pedestrian (e.g., frat initiation pranks, stealing
a test paper, etc.).
After 55 minutes, the killings resume and maintain a fast pace
until the end. But that's too long to wait for the body count to
mount, unless you have an interesting story or characters, which
Final Exam lacks.
Even worse, the slasher is boring. One of the most nondescript
slashers I've ever seen, right down there with that slasher from
He Knows You're Alone, and with even less motivation.
And we see his face. Bad move. A strong slasher should be
enigmatic, not nondescript. Jason and Myers
wear masks.
Final Exam's slasher is a pudgy, silent guy in his late 20s or
early 30s. We learn nothing about him. Not even a news report
about an escape asylum patient. The Nerdy Guy says anyone can wake
up one day and decide to kill, so maybe the slasher's ordinariness
is intentional, but it doesn't work.
Final Exam mistakenly violates the
mask rule, but it follows other slasher film rules. The
slasher has superhuman strength, easily killing a bigger frat guy.
There's also a Last Girl. (It's the Good Girl, of course.)
I don't know why the DVD is so expensive. The transfer is decent,
but not perfect. Sometimes the film jiggles, and there are
occasional dirty spots.
DVD Special Features include interviews with three of the actors,
which is nice.
But don't overpay. Hold off if current DVD prices are high.
Final Exam is not an historic or seminal slasher film, nor
even a very good one. Only slasher film completists will enjoy it
to any degree.
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