20131011: Horror Review--The Final

The Final

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, rated R, 92 minutes, 2010, horror, thriller, drama.
2. IMDB: 5.4/10.0 from 6,710 users.  Estimated budget, 1 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 13% on the meter; 33% from 863 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 294,731 users.
5. Directed by: Joey Stewart.  Written by: Jason Kabolati.
6. Starring: Marc Donato as Dane, Jascha Washington as Kurtis, Whitney Hoy as Bridget, Justin Bradley as Bradley, Lindsey Seidel as Emily, Julin as Heather.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The opening is in black and white, and is nicely done.  It seems to set up a revenge motive.


2. The shift to now and full color was a big one.


3. In a history class, the teacher quotes 'There was a price to pay for your actions,' from the past in China.


4. The setup is pretty clear.  The cool boys are big, heavy, strong, violent; they are entitled bullies and thieves to the core.  The uncool boys are smaller, perhaps decent at some time in their lives, and vulnerable to the cool boys.  The cool girls have ample bosoms, expensive clothes, no shame, and plenty of contempt for girls they think of as uncool.


5. The uncool boys and girls plot revenge based in the present, and the viewer is expected to enjoy it based on the imbalances exposed in the narrative.  Filmed in Dallas?  Not a surprise there.  It is odd that Texas accents are largely absent.


6. There's a party where the uncool kids spiked the drinks.  They chain up all the cool kids.


7. "The good news is, we don't plan to kill you.  The bad news is, you will wish that we had."  Unfortunately, the uncool kids talk too much.


8. The rest of the film is about torture and death, plus a little hunting humans at night in the woods.


9. The plot is pretty thin, in other words.  The middle part is overly long and slow.  Get on with it.


3. Conclusions
1. One sentence summary: High school in Dallas: the uncool ambush the cool with too many speeches.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Absolutely beautiful.  Unfortunately, degenerate teens are onscreen almost all the time.  Still, the visuals are extra fine in HD streamed from Netflix.  The film looked mediocre at best on standard definition when I saw it the first time on satellite TV.


2. Sound: 10/10 Fine.  There is music, but it is not leveled up 20db, which is all too common.


3. Acting: 6/10 OK given the screenplay.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 The adults are largely absent or impotent or complicit or corrupt. The teens are shallow and entitled and violent.  Got it.  There's about 15 minutes of plot spread over 92 minutes.  An uncool adult (Vietnam hero screwed over by American society) does show a minor counter-current of integrity toward the end.