{"id":7342,"date":"2014-05-26T07:47:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T14:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=7342"},"modified":"2022-01-01T09:51:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T17:51:17","slug":"review-finalexam-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2014\/05\/review-finalexam-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Exam Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Final Exam<\/em><\/strong> is seemingly the prototype of 1980s slasher, attempting to cash in on the successes from Halloween<\/em> and Friday the 13th<\/em>, and in this instance, it doesn\u2019t work… at all. I don\u2019t have a problem with bloodless horror movies or ones with a low body count so long as the other scenes provide some sort of character development or building up of suspense, which doesn\u2019t happen here.<\/p>\n

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Final Exam<\/span>
\n(1981)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Genre(s): <\/strong>Horror
\nShout Factory | R \u2013 89 min. \u2013 $24.97 | May 13, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"<\/a><\/td>\n <\/b>MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Jimmy Huston
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Jimmy Huston (written by)
\nCast: <\/strong>Cecile Bagdadi, Joel Rice, Ralph Brown, Deanna Robbins, Sherry Willis-BurchDISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Audio Commentary, Interviews, Theatrical Trailer
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>1Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 1.0)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 1.78
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>22.5 GB
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 0.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cSome may pass the test… God help the rest.\u201d Great tagline. The movie? Not so much.<\/p>\n

Ah, the 1980s and horror where every movie attempted to emulate the success that was 1978\u2019s Halloween<\/em> and in the process, there were a slew of slashers that seemed to try to copy Friday the 13th<\/em> as well (they even duplicated the poster for crying out loud!), which in itself was trying to ride on Halloween<\/em>\u2019s coattails, and one of those early entries was the (for good reason) forgotten Final Exam<\/em><\/strong>, a movie so dull it was hard to even get through the 89-minute running time.<\/p>\n

The story follows a group of college students whose names I won\u2019t bother mentioning as they have thin and\/or annoying personalities but include the bookworm (CECILE BAGDADI), the smart kid\/nark (JOEL RICE), the beautiful slut (DEANNE ROBBINS), the jock (RALPH BROWN), the frat house leader (JOHN FALLON) and the frat pledge loser (TERRY FALLON).<\/p>\n

Arriving on campus is an unnamed \u2013 and unmasked \u2013 killer (TIMOTHY RAYNOR) fresh off killing two coeds at \u201cMarch College\u201d and has come for more bodies… but before that, we get to see these young adults: take exams, chat about boys\/girls, break into offices to steal tests, meet the yodel town sheriff and all the shenanigans you\u2019d expect from a teen adult comedy. It takes a good 50-minutes, well over half-way through, before the Killer stalks his prey and like in any good slasher manages to be in two or three places at the same time, arrive in locations for their victim to run into them (like pouncing out of a barrel) and kill in the most mundane ways with no motivation or history.<\/p>\n

Ok, I might not be the biggest fan of the slasher subgenre but Final Exam<\/em><\/strong> is so bad on so many levels. First, the acting, all from I can tell by first-timers, is terrible though they\u2019re not helped by stilted dialogue and paper-thin clich\u00e9d characters whose only existence is to be slaughter for the mundane and not-scary killer made worse by having no background. But the worst thing of all is it\u2019s just a dull-ass movie where nothing happens after the opening, and a solid 45-minutes, during which we learn nothing about the characters and the suspense is non-existent and we instead get the boring and unfunny version of Animal House<\/em>, sans talent.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s really very little I liked about Final Exam<\/em><\/strong> and it\u2019s deserving of being forgotten especially when it makes the Friday the 13th <\/em>movies, crap sequels included, look like absolute masterpieces by comparison. I realize others might (and do) get something out of this, but I found it to be a chore to get through.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

All the features from the previous Code Red DVD release were ported over:
\nAudio Commentary<\/strong><\/span> features cast members Joel Rice, Cecile Bagdadi and Sherry Willis-Burch moderated by horror fans Julia Marchese and Darren Miller. It\u2019s an enjoyable track even for those, like myself, who didn\u2019t care very much for the movie.<\/p>\n

Also included are Interviews<\/strong><\/span> with Joel S. Rice (6:47), Cecile Bagdadi (3:43) and Sherry Willis-Burch (4:58); and the Theatrical Trailer (1:31)<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Final Exam<\/em><\/strong> arrives for its Blu-ray test courtesy of Shout Factory. The high-def transfer has been culled from the original camera negative providing for good detail levels, black and darker scenes are fairly stark and don\u2019t show any splotch or large grain but it\u2019s hardly perfect as there are dust marks and even minor tears (in one scene). But considering the film\u2019s age and how cheaply (and quickly) it was made, plus seeing the original footage in the trailer, it\u2019s quite the feat the studio did in making it look as good as it does.<\/p>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which serves the movie well enough showing off the horrendously bad music score which attempts to imitate John Carpenter\u2019s music in Halloween<\/em> including the classic waterphone which the composer uses to the extreme, annoyingly so at times, yet it\u2019s also amusing as it is old school horror.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, Final Exam<\/em><\/strong> is seemingly the prototype of 1980s slasher, attempting to cash in on the successes from Halloween<\/em> and Friday the 13th<\/em>, and in this instance, it doesn\u2019t work… at all. I don\u2019t have a problem with bloodless horror movies or ones with a low body count so long as the other scenes provide some sort of character development or building up of suspense, which doesn\u2019t happen here.<\/p>\n

The Blu-ray released by Shout Factory has a good and updated transfer and the lossless audio track is adequate and certainly an upgrade over previous DVD releases.
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Published: <\/strong>05\/26\/2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Final Exam is seemingly the prototype of 1980s slasher, attempting to cash in on the successes from Halloween and Friday the 13th, and in this instance, it doesn\u2019t work… at all. I don\u2019t have a problem with bloodless horror movies or ones with a low body count so long as the other scenes provide some … Continue reading “Final Exam Blu-ray Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,970],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","category-quick-hit-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7342"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27801,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7342\/revisions\/27801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}