2 comments

1. 

   Posted By diapers on February 7, 2012 @ 6:41 pm

   Log in to Reply

   ★★★☆☆

   I am proud to admit that as a young lad, Final Exam was in my teen-aged collection of low budget duped VHS slashers, along with Maniac, Madman, Happy Birthday to Me, and the usual quiver. This film itself is AWFUL, yet my 13 year old psyche was unable to distinguish important things like quality, plot, writing… slasher films were simply all GREAT, for merely existing.

   I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but the fact that the killer is given ZERO back story, was (and is) perhaps my favorite thing about this film. We are never given any hint as to who this fellow it, what the HELL his problem is, or why he feels the need to indiscriminately murder college students. Is he a student? A vagrant? Who cares? I sure as hell didn’t. And I don’t now, thirty years later. The gall of the writer/director, to simply refuse to address the main plot point… is HILARIOUS.

   As the BD review notes, there is significant, albeit somewhat misguided, time spent on character development (besides the killer, of course). I’d like to single out the character “Wildman” as the shining beacon of this film. Wildman’s character is over the top, a doodled cartoon of the seminal jock and/or party animal, solely driven to whittle his tuition dollars away with cheating, drinking, and a preposterous plan to steal (and then sell) drugs for the college laboratory. Yet my nagging question for the director would be, “what gives with Wildman lovingly nibbling on the pledges ear?” Anyhow, I was content to observe the rantings and silliness of “Wildman”, and was genuinely saddened at his demise. Does this point to my own maladjustment? Perhaps.

   So there you have it. I’m giving this film rather high marks, to somehow honor it’s disjointed, poorly explained messiness. You will not find gore, nor much blood, nor many boobs. But watch it, you should. With beer.

2. 

   Posted By maynardmorrissey on March 8, 2012 @ 5:41 am

   Log in to Reply

   ★★★★☆

   Jimmy Huston’s “Final Exam” is undoubtedly one of the weirdest, one of the most underrated but also one of my favorite slasher flicks.

   Basically it’s your typical 80s slasher: a bunch of silly teenagers, a killer who kills them off one by one, a final girl, some nudity, some gore and some eerie music.
   What makes it different from other slasher flicks is the killer:
   He wears no mask, we can see his face, he looks like some average guy, he has no superhuman powers and most important, he has no backstory and no motive. Yep, you read right: we never get to know who he is, and why he suddenly appears at the campus to kill off all the students!
   As you can guess, the majority of horror fans hates this ‘lack of explanation / information’, but there are a few (like me) who have no problem with that, who even think that this is exactly what makes “Final Exam” so interesting.

   The whole movie is entertaining, thrilling and incredibly atmospheric, due to the cool-looking and well-shot college campus and Gary S. Scott’s amazingly haunting, John-Carpenter-esque piano / synth score.
   Speaking of Carpenter, there are also many scenes that are pretty similar to the mother of all slashers, “Halloween” (killer driving around watching people, killer standing under the window of the final girl), and the main character strongly reminds me of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode.

   Highlights:
   the opening kill, the absolutely hilarious ‘terrorist shoot-out’ prank, the ‘Art In The Dark’ scene, the strangely eerie scene in the kitchen (daylight), the kitchen scene where the killer comes down the lift (night), and the terrific sports hall scene.

   Ok, there are many characters who are quite annoying (especially that douchebag Wild Man) and the first half is often way too tedious – but aside from that, I freakin’ love “Final Exam”!

   http://www.horrormoviediary.net