THE AISLE SEAT - by Mike McGranaghan
"THE FINAL TERROR"
When it was originally released in 1983, The Final Terror was just another “slasher in the woods” flick, albeit one that was better than average. Viewed today, it's a cavalcade of well-known names working together before any of them were famous. In addition to stars Daryl Hannah, Rachel Ward, and Joe Pantoliano, the movie was co-written by Ron Shusett (Total Recall), produced by Joe Roth (While You Were Sleeping, Heaven Is for Real), and directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive). It's been hard to find The Final Terror for years, but it's now available on in a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack from Scream Factory.
The story centers around a group of forest rangers hired to take some campers (including Hannah and Ward) on an excursion into the woods. A couple of them, including Marco (Adrian Zmed), go missing. Bodies pile up. A creepy old cabin is discovered, and it appears that there is some kind of crazed backwoods woman defending her “property” against trespassers. But is it really a woman, and does high-strung ranger Eggar (Pantoliano) know more than he's letting on? The story ends with a dramatic conclusion in which the surviving campers find the answers to those questions and launch a plan to fight back against their attacker.
The Final Terror was, until now, something of a “lost” movie. The original camera negative and inter-positive no longer exist, which made a commercial DVD release impossible. Scream Factory managed to track down a number of private celluloid collectors who had prints of the film. They then took the best copy of each reel they could find to assemble for this disc. To their credit, it looks acceptable, despite periodic scratches and occasional variances in color quality. And, truth be told, the fact that every eighteen minutes you see the “cigarette burns” used to indicate a reel change only adds to the vintage grindhouse feel.
The new transfer alone makes the movie notable, but that's not the only thing. The Final Terror, unlike many similar films of the era, is actually pretty good. The acting is a notch above par – a credit to Davis and his casting directors, Penny Ellers and Penny Perry. They spotted some significant young talent early in the game. (Also in the cast is Mark Metcalf, a.k.a. Neidermeyer from Animal House.) Whereas many low-budget horror flicks of the early '80s had acting that was amateurish at best, The Final Terror is filled with convincing performances.
Davis also gives the movie a fairly taut pace, showing restraint in holding the gore and violence until the moments when it can make the biggest impact possible. The grand finale, where the killer is revealed and dealt with, is especially well-staged, even if somewhat implausible. In this sequence and others, the movie additionally makes great use of the forest setting, practically turning it into another hostile enemy for our characters to face. It wouldn't take a genius to see that the director was bound to go on to bigger things.
The Final Terror isn't the slasher classic that Halloween and Friday the 13th are, but it does what it sets out to do, and it does so effectively.
Blu-Ray Features:
The bonus goodies begin with an audio commentary from Andrew Davis, who is surprisingly laconic here.
There are about 40 minutes of new interviews associated with the film. “Post-Terror: Finishing The Final Terror” is largely devoted to post-production supervisor Allan Holtzman. He radically retooled the movie, and is probably as responsible as Davis for it being an above-average slasher. Holtzman explains what he changed and why he changed it, and also reveals that the post-Blade Runner popularity of Daryl Hannah was largely responsible for The Final Terror getting a theatrical release. Composer Susan Justin also appears to offer thoughts on her musical score. It's really enlightening to hear some of the behind-the-scenes stories from a low-budget exploitation flick.
Also here is “The First Terror,” a segment featuring interviews with actors Adrian Zmed and Lewis Smith. They relate some very amusing anecdotes about making the film, including the perils of doing their own stuntwork. Zmed also reveals the reason why The Final Terror sat on a shelf for three years before seeing release. (It had something to do with the number of dead bodies.) This feature is well worth watching, as the actors have some very specific thoughts on what was their first big credit.
A behind-the-scenes photo gallery and the original theatrical trailer are on the Blu-Ray as well. For more information on this release, please visit the Scream Factory website.
The Final Terror is rated R for a crazy person running around killing people. The running time is 1 hour and 22 minutes.
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