The Final Terror

A group of young campers find themselves stalked through the woods by a killer.

This 1983 slasher film stars John Friedrich, Rachel Ward, and Mark Metcalf. It was written by John George, Neil Hicks and Ronald Shusett. Andrew Davis directed.

Now this one I’d heard of before, albeit in not so glowing terms. Though in fairness I could be confusing it with another, similar flick called The Forest.

The story, in a nutshell, has this group of rangers taking some women out on a camping expedition. Some of the menfolk are jerks, among which is their bus driver. Before the first night is over the driver gets so incensed by the others he heads off to the next point on the trip alone.

The killings start soon after that.

All said and done, The Final Terror is a Horror flick in the vein of movies like Rituals. Unlike Rituals it doesn’t have the strong character performances. There is no one here of Hal Holbrook’s caliber, for instance. Not like there were a lot who were.

The comparison, though, might be unfair. The acting isn’t terrible, and there are some credible names there (Dayrl Hannah, Rachel Ward, and Joe Paltoliano, to name some names.) Another problem is that the script ain’t doing them any favors. A good chunk of the male cast is unlikable and the women tend to blend together in terms of personality. That there situation is so horrible does help them, and towards the end I had more than a little empathy for them and their plight.

The whole thing is kind of a mixed bag. I think the good out weighs the bad here. There’s no clear protagonist, which brings the sense that anyone could go at any time. It could have been better, it could have been worse.

End of the day, it stirred me. Made me tense when it needed to, and didn’t cause me to roll my eyes in disbelief all that often. I’m going with a low good (1.5 points). I enjoyed myself and could see watching this again. (1.5 points).