The Final Terror
Director:Andrew Davis
Writers: Jon George and Ronald Shusett (story by Jon George)
Starring: John Friedrich, Adrian Zmed, and Darryl Hannah
Body Count: 6
Review: Two teens get murdered in the woods. Soon after, a group of teenage campers heads out to the same woods, where all hell breaks loose for their little group. Sound familiar?
Sure it does, but let me tell you, that's where the similarities end between The Final Terror and the dozens of other camp massacre flicks that proliferated throughout the 80s. What this film treats us to instead is sort of a Predator-meets-Friday the 13th, a primal survival movie with a slasher.
What does all of that mean? Well, you've got your core group of kids (who, in all actuallity, aren't stereotypes!) who are amazingly well acted by this odd troupe of mostly unknowns (with the exception, of course, of Ward and Hannah). So good is the acting that you don't really pay attention to the fact that seemingly nothing happens in this movie for a long time, before the slasher's presence is discovered by the group, and from there the surviving members go all rural-notzoid, setting traps for the killer and luring them into a really kick-ass schoolbus scene. It's all pretty original, if not good.
There's some blood in the movie, too, and a little bit of character development--although the film would have benefitted from more of both. Also noteworthy is the rather uneventful ending of the film, in which we find out that the killer is sort of inconsequential.
The film doesn't necessarily play out perfectly, but it is worth at least one viewing, just to prove to yourself that there were some 80s slashers that had decent acting!
Trivia: Also known as Bump in the Night, The Forest Primeval(?) and the way-cool title Campsite Massacre.
