Okay let’s kick off the “8 Films To Die For 2010” with this nice little revenge romp.
Title: The Final (2010)
Tagline: Consequences. None of us are free from them.
Rating: 7.5/10
Synopsis: Fed-up with their constant mistreatment and bullying at high school, on top of their already miserable home lives; a group of outcasts decide to take revenge on their tormentors but instead of the can-do American spirit of a school shooting, the group uses their love and knowledge of horror films to organizes a party that the bullies will never forget.
Firstly let me give you a bit of background to the 8 Films To Die For festival, it is an annual event run by the After Dark production company. The festival features 8 independent horror films of the year, handpicked by the company. Sometimes they will put in 1 or 2 extra “secret” films (such as 2006’s Snoop Dogg’s Hood Of Horror) however these special films have usually been the worse of the lot and (thankfully) they seem to be getting phased out. Although with the state that you find modern horror in these days, a majority of the films in festival are fall somewhere between Uwe Boll-grade to mediocre at best. Thankfully though around 2-3 each year will actually be better then some of the cinema released films, with at least one usually making someones top ten and to me The Final is one of these films.
This movie really went to the dogs *boomtish* Okay I'm sorry for that one.
The revenge horror movie sub-genre has always been a hit and miss thing for me, most of the time I find it hard to relate to any of the characters of the film. When we have to follow the group that has wronged the antagonist ( eg. I Know What You Did Last Summer, Forget Me Not), I find myself well… rooting for the antagonist. I find it bizarre that writers think we will care a whole lot about characters that have performed some pretty despicable acts and sure their retribution isn’t exactly the fairest of terms but if the group of high school ‘tards didn’t run over and try to cover up a murder, then they wouldn’t be getting all upset as their innards are used to decorate the living room. On the other hand when the film follows the person out for revenge (eg. I Spit On Your Grave), the motives behind the roaring rampage of revenge don’t exactly seem to fit the punishment they dish out, once again leaving me scratching my head for who I should actually be caring for in the film.
The Final is one of the few films I have seen where the manage to get this right. Throughout the film I found myself able to fully relate to the group of outcasts, this is done through a well done first act introducing the key players to the film. This shows exactly how miserable their home and school life is and boy is it bad, everyone of the kids has a barely functioning home life albeit with different forms of dysfunctionality (one scene has the leader of the group, Dane sitting on his bed with a gun to his head while all you can hear are his parents going at each others throats downstairs) and at school it does not get any better, I don’t know if it is an American thing but I swear bullies there are much bigger tools then any I have had to deal with in Australia. This character development works well for the film, usually I have no sympathy for the protagonists of a lot of modern horror, it’s good to see something written well enough to make me care and root for what would traditionally be called the villains of the film, besides haven’t we have all wanted to torture and dismember the people that bullied and harassed you in high school? Right? ….Right?
Ah chief? We might want to keep an eye on this one.
The rest of the film follows the outcasts revenge plan. After getting the popular kids to attend an out of the way farm house under the guise of a masquerade party, the outcasts drug and chain up the teens and precede to start their night of mayhem. As mentioned before the group of outcasts are horror movie fans and this is what brings some of the charm to the film, instead of torturing the kids as themselves they all take on a persona, dressing up in full masked costumes that are little homages to famous horror arch-types. A majority of the outfits look really good ranging from a scarecrow/savage hillbilly type all the way to an SS storm trooper; with my favorite being Dane’s gas-mask outfit. However the costume that I didn’t really get into was Emily’s doctor/butcher outfit, something about the mask on it just put me off, it reminded me somewhat of Drop Dead Fred’s head after it is flattened in a fridge and while being reminded of Rik Mayall’s scenery chewing performance is horrifying, it’s not the sort of dread I want in a horror film.
The true face of evil.
For an independent film the thing that really surprised me was the quality of the acting, nearly every character is spot-on with the performance. The group of jocks and sluts all give really believable performances, hell it seems like some of these people would fit right into my high school years. They play their performances of assholes good enough so you do want to see them get their just deserts but not too over the top that you don’t squirm when the torture starts.
The outcasts all give excellent performances as well, the show stealer being their leader Dane played by Marc Donato, I am unfamiliar with his work but he had apparently done a lot of TV work with appearances in Degrassi: The Next Generation and voice work for Avatar: The last airbender. He plays the role of the villain protagnist like it was made for him, giving his masked persona a slightly hammier performance then his teenage self which works really well. Combined with his hannibal lectures throughout the film he defiantly feels like one fine of the charasmatic masked killers of the 80’s.
The other breakout performance was the character of Jack played by Eric Isenhower, once again having only been on TV shows before the movie, he gives an impressive performance. He plays a more quiet and under appreciated character, preferring to follow then lead. His masked persona is like an opposite to Dane’s charismatic villain, channeling the quiet brooding killers of the 80’s ala Jason Voorhese or Michael Myers. Eric also plays a fucking mean banjo using these skills to add more intensity to the scene by plucking the banjo more and more frantically as the torture scenes are underway. The performance that really did it for me was before the party is underway, Jack is leaving to start the preparations at the farm house and is saying good bye to his dad for what he believes to be the last time. He gives a heart felt speech about what he will be doing tonight and what the consequences of the events will lead too, you can feel that he is almost wanting to be stopped, wanting his dad to show him some attention, some affection but his dad just sits there working on his car, ignoring him like usual.
The other thing I quite enjoyed for this film was its surprisingly low amount of gore and yet it still managed to have a quite a few cringe worthy scenes, with most companies these days thinking that gruesome means spraying the set in enough blood to drown a small elephant it was nice to see a film pull off suspense and horror psychologically instead and that is what really makes the film. See the film does not get it scares in the traditional horror sense, hell I think this is the first film in a while that didn’t result in the contractually obligated 234.5 jump scares to portray its horror. No it plants a seed of dread, throughout the film you don’t know exactly how far the outcasts will go, will they cross the line and flat out slaughter them like cattle? How far are they going to go to push across there message? Who will survive and what will be left of them? These questions play on your mind throughout the film and then at the same time you have to keep in minds that these characters are only high schoolers not that much younger then you and me but here they are sadistically torturing their fellow classmates. It manages to find a way to stay under your skin throughout the movie.
So there are my thoughts on The Final. A film I would defiantly recommend picking up and with Lake Mungo, the two highlights out of this years After Dark Horror fest.
“Think of this as the… final and there is only one question. What did I do to deserve this”
Alrighty then, first review posted now. So tell me what you though of it? What you liked, what you thought was unnecessary, what you would like to see more of. Either way the comment box is there so drop me a comment.
– The reviewing Basterd
You can follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/telkana
Or send me an email on thereviewingbasterd@hotmail.com
The Reviewing Basterd 
