★ 5 / 10
***“Deliverance” meets “Friday the 13th” with undeveloped c...
Wuchak
***“Deliverance” meets “Friday the 13th” with undeveloped characters*** Some forest workers & friends camp out in the coastal Redwoods of Northern California…
***“Deliverance” meets “Friday the 13th” with undeveloped characters***
Some forest workers & friends camp out in the coastal Redwoods of Northern California, but there’s a legend about an escaped female mental patient and her deranged son born of rape.
“The Final Terror” (1983) was shot in the Redwoods in late summer 1981 with only four crewmembers. As my title blurb suggests, it’s a meshing of “Deliverance” (1972) and “Friday the 13th.” The sylvan locations are outstanding, the antagonist is well realized and the no-name cast is interesting and diverse. Unfortunately the script failed to develop actual personalities, plus too many of them are unconvincingly unlikable. We don’t know these people nor do we care about ’em.
Thankfully, the film improves in the second half as it becomes a survival-in-the-woods tale with a couple original elements, like the way the prey (try to) become the hunters.
The movie was shelved for over two years because the producers couldn’t find a distributor. Since the flick only featured three deaths, the opening sequence with the couple getting killed was shot in order to increase its chances of obtaining a distributor. Yet this was done without the director's approval, so the producer had to pay a fee with some of it coming from the director’s wedding at the time. Interestingly, this prologue is one of the more compelling parts of the movie and is highlighted by the only female really worth noting, physically speaking. I’m not saying the other ladies were bad, just that the director evidently didn’t know how to capture the fairer sex on film.
Speaking of which, Daryl Hannah (Wendy) and Rachel Ward (Margaret) were unknowns at the time, but moved on to more proficient productions. So did Adrian Zmed (Marco Cerone), but less impressively so.
The film runs 1 hour, 22 minutes, and was shot at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in extreme Northern California and the Crescent City area.
GRADE: C+
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★ 5 / 10
Lacks Excitement
briandwillis-83825
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…
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.
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★ 5 / 10
Typical slasher movie about a group of young campers is stalked by a mad killer
ma-cortes
Terrifying and unsettling movie plenty of thrills , chills , lush outdoors and passable acting. In the opening scene, a young couple loses control of their…
Terrifying and unsettling movie plenty of thrills , chills , lush outdoors and passable acting. In the opening scene, a young couple loses control of their motorbike and fall to the ground when they hit a fallen tree laying on the track through a forest where they are riding. The guy, Jim, is badly hurt, and the girl, Lori, runs to find some help. She runs back to Jimmy where she finds him hanging upside down from a tree, terrified she runs back to a cabin . Then a group of rangers go camping on unfamiliar forest grounds. All's well until the group members start getting killed by a cunning killer in the woods. But there's some sinister in the woods. They suddenly become desperate when occurs a chain of nightmarish events . He has found you. Screaming won't help anymore. It's too late...Can anyone survive?. Without knowing they have awakened an unknown force. If you go down to the woods today you're sure of... The final terror. Daryl Hannah and Rachel Ward - Trapped In A Web Of Madness And Terror!. Don't See It Alone. A ghoulish tale of murder and the macabre from the creator of Alien. Without knowing they have awakened an unknown force. Can anyone survive?. He Has Found You. Without knowing they have awakened an unknown force!.If you go down to the woods today you're sure of...The film displays thrills , chills , cardboard horror , tension and lots of blood and gory scenes for nauseating execution. The concept of the movie is plain and simple, the typical series murderer who proceeds an astonishing massacre. Scary and eerie with abundant gore, including nice make-up and adequate special effects. As always, a series killer makes an authentic slaughter with gruesome and bloody assassinations using some forest traps and other murderous instruments . After successes as John Carpenter's Halloween and Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th expanded a lot of rip-offs or imitations and one of the best ones resulted to be this ¨The burning (1981)¨, following this ¨Final terror¨. The Final Terror is notable for the presence of some soon-to-be stars appearing some familiar and young faces as who subsequently to be continued decent cinematic careers: Daryl Hannah, Rachel Ward, Joe Pantoliano, Lewis Smith, Adrian Zmed, John Friedrich, Mark Metcalf . To minimize costs, the production wasn't insured and the actors did their own stunts , for instance, some actors actually climbed the hills risked landscapes in order to save costs . Apart from a couple of minutes of mayhem at the beginning and end, the nearest of the film gets to dealing with the deranged slasher plot is to have it told, midway, as a camp-fire spook story. Undermining genre expectations, director Davis reveals an affectionate respect for the woods and likes his roles enough not to line them up as Slaher Victims. Surprisingly, the women aren't on board to be decorative nude figures , nor simple rape victims. ¨Deliverance¨ is the inspiration, but finally this film rafted down a different stream.The motion picture was professionally directed by Andrew Davis, but nothing special, he's a filmmaker with a reputation for directing intelligent thrillers. Director Davis provides this film with great plot strength since he himself is an expert in physics and engineering. He has made good and boxoffice films, such as ¨Above the law¨, ¨The final terror¨ , ¨Chain reaction¨ , ¨Collateral damage¨ , ¨The Package¨ and Davis went on to direct 1992's top grossing picture, ¨Under siege¨ (1992), for Warner Brothers, a classic action film teaming Steven Seagal with Tommy Lee Jones. Being his greatest hit ¨The fugitive¨, this film received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and earned Tommy Lee Jones a Best Supporting Actor award. Andrew Davis frequently casts 'Ron Dean', Chelcie Ross, Joseph F. Kosala, Joe Pantoliano and his father 'Nathan Davis' . He often directs in his city : Chicago. Rating The Final Terror(1983): 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable but inferior than other Andrew Davis films.
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Okay, but this is the _final_ terror.