THE FINAL (a review)

This is one of the 8 Movies To Die For from Afterdark Horrorfest 4. To be honest I didn't know that before I watched it or I probably would have passed on it. Every one of the Horrorfest movies I've seen has been horrible. Still this movie had an intriguing premise so I gave it a try and I'm glad I did. If you're looking for a little horror movie to give a try, this is the best I've seen in a while.

The story: a group of pick-on high school teens drug and chain the cool/abusive kids during a party and force them into a series of sadistic games to show teach them about the pain they have been inflicting on others for the last four years.

First, I'm not a fan of torture films. I don't like the SAW films, don't like HOSTILE. Not for me. What makes this movie work, beyond the concept which I like, is the fact that the filmmakers didn't rush into it. They spend some time with the characters so we get to know them -- the obnoxious, but funny cool kids, the angry and not funny outcasts. We see them at school. We see them planning. We see the party and then we get the reversal. Making this about the kids, rather than just the concept, is what made this film good.

Where the movie faltered is int he second half. You can probably sense what the first half of the movie is like. It's at the second half that one of the captured kids (the "good" one) escapes and the losers/now-torturers begin to turn on themsevles. None of it really adds anything. And the problem is that the second half is where the filmmakers needed to reach deeper into the concept, deeper into the characters to find that next level. Instead, it just kind of goes and goes and goes, so the movie more limps to the end then builds to a satisfying climax.

Still, compared to most of the crap that's out there -- or even to the good-but-empty storytelling of a movie like THE CRAZIES -- this is a movie that's easy to recommend. In fact, it's probably one of the best I've seen since the Japanese film BATTLE ROYALE (which has the wonderfully twisted concept of the goverment dealing with juevenile delinquency by putting them on an island and forcing them to kill each other).

*** RECOMMEND (low budget horror) ***