Anthony DiBlasi’s The Final (2010) intrigued me because…well ok, mostly it intrigued me because it was in the “Gory Horror Films” section of Netflix. But it was also about revenge, and I am a sucker for a good horror film where the jerks get their just desserts. The movie begins by helping the audience out with a big serving of sympathy for the characters that are getting picked on in high school for being weird or different from the popular kids. You know the drill, the nerds get picked on and eventually they can’t take it anymore and they snap. Though there are several characters involved for viewers to become invested in, I feel strongly that the movie took entirely too much time with this and didn’t get involved in the real action until quite late in the film. There could have been much more time allowed for gore over sentimentality, especially when some of the gore was pretty inventive in this film.
I loved the idea that these kids didn’t want to kill their tormentors; they wanted to scar and disfigure them so that tormentor would become tormented. Savagely brilliant, conceptually speaking. At first, I thought that when the mutilation started that the girls weren’t going to have it as bad as the guys – they seemed to keep picking on the guys at first. But the first girl they picked wound up getting her face smeared with a compound that would burn away her flesh. That’s pretty awesome. The nerds also have fun with two of their captives, telling both that if one of them cuts off all ten fingers from the other’s hand, that person will be spared. Neither could complete the task, but man was it fun to watch them try. The acting in the film isn’t exceptional, but it isn’t terrible either. I particularly enjoyed Marc Donato’s performance as Dane, and Whitney Hoy as Bridget. Both characters felt the most round and relatable, at least in my opinion.
I also remember thinking to myself that the script itself wasn’t written half-bad, some of the lines in the movie were almost profound (for a horror movie, that is). There just seemed to be a little more of it than was needed (talking where there could be more blood). The gore was done well, my favorite of all probably being the bear trap. I was surprised that there wasn’t more actual killing going on in the film, but it was a refreshing change to see there was a lesson to be learned. The first and final scenes repeat each other also, which was a nice touch to reiterate what The Final was all about. Number of killers? Four, technically. Number of torturers? Five. Body Count? Six or seven. Boob count? Zero. Cheap thrills? Zero. Actual creeps given? Two or three. Entertainment? For sure. Raven’s Scream Meter says: 2.5 out of 5 Screams. Think of Revenge of the Nerds, only much more horrifying. Win.
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