Final Exam (1981)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Fantastic!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

You remember that interview where Vanilla Ice tried to explain why he didn't steal Queen/David Bowie's "Under Pressure?"I'd like to hear whoever did the music for this movie to explain how they added a "da na na" to the theme from Halloween. Then again, there's plenty more that this movie owes to that film.A killer with a kitchen knife is on the prowl, killing off college kids. And he's on the way to Lanier College during finals.Meanwhile, a fraternity stages a mass shooting to help their members pass a chemistry test. How does this plan work? Who comes up with such a plan?While students prepare for the end of the year, the killer is hiding among them. We have Courtney, who is the Final Girl, of course. Her roommate is Lisa, who is all into the hot professor. Well, not really hot. He's a professor, though.For some reason, all of the pledges can't dare anyone. But Gary is in love with Janet and pins her, so he gets punished by being tied up to a tree, his underwear filled with ice and then sprayed with shaving cream. What? Where did this ritual come from? Who goes through with this? Even the rest of the town, like the security guard, follow these rules. What is the deal with this school?Well, he's tied up and the killer gets him. Then it gets his girlfriend, too. While that's going on, Wildman, a frat guy, is looking for pain pills when he gets killed by a Universal weight machine. His friend Mark tries to find him and he gets killed.Then we have Radish, who isn't gay in the movie but would totally be a proud out character if this was made after 1981. He's constantly looking for killers and has a great poster collection of old films. All his knowledge of murder doesn't help, as he's instantly killed.Lisa tries to model for her boyfriend in the nude, but she gets killed, too. And now we're down to one and the killer even catches an arrow and stabs the coach with it when he tries to save Courtney. But then he falls into a hole and she stabs him to death. That's it. That's the fight he puts up.Written and directed by Jimmy Huston (My Best Friend Is a Vampire), this is pretty much Halloween with a killer who was too lazy to get a mask (he was also the fight coordinator for the film).That said, I wasn't bored, I laughed out loud at many of the things that Radish did and said, and I enjoyed the arrow catching scene. You'll be filled with questions. Like, how much chaffing did the short shorts of the 80's cause?

I didn't have high hopes for this one. I didn't see any big names in the cast either. I was proved right.The characters are highly clichéd. Having seen a few slashers recently I was not that satisfied with the clichéd characters which you can predict from the beginning. The dialogue is tired and unimaginative. But maybe there is one thing that separates it from some other slashers. The killer is revealed in the beginning itself and there is no whodunit structure to the movie. So there are no over the top twists or strange reasoning for the murders. In fact there is no reason at all, just some random guy doing these things for the audience entertainment I guess.The shooting scene was done pretty well. I admit I was impressed with the scene, a pretty unexpected one in an 80s slasher. Frankly that was the only memorable scene in the movie, otherwise it doesn't really make an impact. I liked "the boy who cried wolf" touch in the end as well.There is maybe one scene of nudity, maybe they could have amped up the sleaze, at least that could raise the rating a bit. The kill count is pretty big, maybe he has wiped out most of the people there (at least the ones who were available).Altogether an average slasher which I would not watch twice.5/10

A psycho killer shows up on college campus to slash up pretty co-eds and dumb jocks.This is not one of the better known slasher films out there, despite it coming out early on in the genre (1981). Why? Perhaps the lack of name actors or director? Most likely what makes it obscure is the same thing that makes it better than the average slasher: they tried to actually have real characters.Sure, we all like when the mean girls and boys get hacked up without ever really getting to know them. And that has its place. But then you also have this gem, where the killing is such a small part of the story (even with a high body count) that they rarely show it on camera.Now, with the Scream Factory Blu-Ray the picture and sound are better than ever (though, for first-timers like myself this may not be obvious). And there is a nice assortment of interviews and commentary on the disc, too, for fans who want to know a little bit more.

The film is basically boring. Half of the film is non-action filler that does nothing for the film. The kill scenes are not gory, nor are they original or interesting. Killer has no persona or screen presence: just a guy in an army jacket with a knife. Guess he is supposed to be like a Mike Myers, but w/o the mask or the scariness. Also there is no story or motivation behind the killings: he is just your generic killer.The only good thing about the film is that the annoying students you have to put up with for half of the stupid film finally get offed. Ending is not interesting and is abrupt. It is like a film student project almost. Don't waste your time.