Final Exam (film)

Final Exam
Promotional film poster
Directed by Jimmy Huston
Produced by James McNamara
Perry Katz
Written by Jimmy Huston
Starring Cecile Bagdadi
Joel S. Rice
DeAnna Robbins
Sherry Willis-Burch
Ralph Brown
John Fallon
Timothy Raynor
Music by Gary S. Scott
Cinematography Darrell Catchart
Edited by John A. O'Connor
Distributed by Avco Embassy Pictures
Motion Picture Marketing
Release date
  • June 5, 1981 (1981-06-05)
Running time
 89 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $1.3 million

Final Exam is a 1981 American slasher film written and directed by Jimmy Huston and starring Cecile Bagdadi, Joel S. Rice & Timothy L. Raynor. The plot follows a killer stalking the remaining group of students left on a college campus days before the university's summer vacation.

Upon its limited release, the film was panned by critics. Despite this, the film has gained a small cult following and was released to DVD for the first time in 2008. While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic. The film has been noted by critics for its focusing on establishing characters as well as featuring an entirely arbitrary killer.[1]

Plot

One night at March College, a young couple is making out in a parked vehicle; the girl rejects the boyfriend's advances, but he pressures her anyways. An unseen assailant harasses the couple, before slicing through the roof of the vehicle and pulling the boy out of the driver's seat. He murders him with a kitchen knife, as the girl screams in horror.

Meanwhile the nearby Lanier college is nearing the week of final exams. In order to make sure a group of students ace their chemistry final, a fraternity fakes a shooting, so that the students can have more time to study. While the students prepare for their exams, the murderer begins stalking them. Bookish Courtney is studying hard for her exams; her roommate Lisa is preparing to leave for her home in the city. Lisa is also having an affair with one of her professors, Dr. Reynolds. Gary, a pledge for Gamma Delta, suffers from a prank in which he is bound to a tree for the night. The murderer unties him, before dispatching him with a knife. Gary's girlfriend, Janet, discovers his remains shortly, before she is also murdered by the same man.

Another Gamma member, Wildman, plans to sell some pain killers, but is lured into a darkened gymnasium. Wildman finds the pain killers he had been looking for, but the murderer appears and attacks him. The murderer chases him to the weight room, where he is garroted on a weight-lifting machine. Another student named Mark discovers Wildman's body and is subsequently chased by the murderer into the school's electrical building. The murderer emerges from a barrel and stabs Mark, killing him. Nerdy student Radish discovers the carnage and attempts to alert the police, who do not take him seriously due to all the ongoing pranks. The murderer appears and Radish takes shelter in Courtney's dorm room, but the murderer is able to force his way inside and murders him off-screen.

Courtney returns to her dormitory, where she discovers Radish's body pinned to her door. A terrified Courtney attempts to alert her dormitory, but everyone has gone home for the break. Lisa waits for Dr. Reynolds in the school's conservatory; the murderer enters the room and stabs her to death. Courtney goes to the conservatory to alert Lisa, but discovers her body. The murderer chases after her, and Courtney arms herself with a kitchen knife, before taking refuge in the campus's clock tower. Alerted by Courtney's cries for help, a coach arrives and shoots at the murderer with arrows, but he catches one in his hand and impales the coach with the arrow, killing him. The murderer attempts to finish Courtney off and the two struggle; she pushes him from the top floor of the tower. Thinking him dead, Courtney is seized by the murderer when he grabs her ankle. She stabs him to death 12 times, ultimately killing him.

The film ends as Courtney sits on the front steps of the building, as she attempts to process her ordeal.

Cast

  • Cecile Bagdadi as Courtney
  • Joel S. Rice as Radish
  • Ralph Brown as Wildman Chambers
  • DeAnna Robbins as Lisa
  • Sherry Willis-Burch as Janet McArdle
  • John Fallon as Mark
  • Terry W. Farren as Gary
  • Timothy L. Raynor as Killer
  • Sam Kilman as Sheriff Quentin
  • Don Hepner as Dr. Charlie Reynolds
  • Mary Ellen Withers as Elizabeth
  • Jerry Rushing as Coach
  • Shannon Norfleet as Boy in Car
  • Carol Capka as Girl in Car
  • R.C. Nanney as Mitch

Production

The majority of the cast on Final Exam were stage actors cast in Los Angeles, California.[2] The film's lead, Cecile Bagdadi, was cast after she was seen performing in a production of Faces on the Wall at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles.[3] The film was shot over a period of six weeks from September 15, 1979 to October 25, 1979[3] at E.O. Studios in Shelby, North Carolina.[4] Additional photography took place at Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina,[5] and Isothermal Community College in Spindale, North Carolina.[6]

Release

Final Exam received a limited theatrical release on June 5, 1981, and was a minor commercial success, grossing $1.3 million in the United States.[7]

Critical response

Linda Gross of The Los Angeles Times gave the film a middling review, noting that it "vacillate[s] between the college-prank humor of an Animal House and a killer-thriller like Prom Night."[8] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune deemed the film a "rip-off" of Halloween (1978), characterized by "standard stalking-shots as the camera rolls in on the girls as they cower in terror in hallways and classrooms."[9] TV Guide called the film "dull" and "virtually bloodless", panning the film's dialogue heavy scenes.[10] The Baltimore Evening Sun's Lou Cedrone panned the film, writing: "The script never explains who the murderer is or why he's doing the killing...  The most horrifying thing about it is the behavior of the fraternity boys, and the only really commendable thing about it is that the killings are handled with restraint."[11]

AllMovie called it "a hybrid of frat-boy comedy and slasher-thriller exploitation which features no slashing, no humor and fails to exploit anything".[12] Brett Gallman from horror review website Oh, the Horror! gave the film a positive review. Complimenting the film's characterizations, and slow mounting tension while also criticizing the murders as uninventive and long stretch before the murders occur.[13]

In Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies, film scholar Jim Harper notes that the film takes "the autonomous face of the slasher movie killer to the extreme: The man terrorizing the teenagers is shown on screen, but he has no name, no connection to his victims, no history is ever given, nor any motive. He simply appears, begins killing, and is defeated."[1] He also notes the film's shortcomings in character development, writing: "If the rest of the characters had been as well drawn as Radish, then Final Exam might well have been a minor classic. As it is, they're all stereotypical jocks and cheerleaders, and ultimately forgettable."[14]

The film has a 14% "Rotten" rating on film review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 3.4/10 based on 6 reviews.[15]

Musical score

Final Exam
Soundtrack album by Gary S. Scott
Released 1981
Genre
Length 34:47
Label AEI Records

An official score was released for the film in 1981 by AEI Records.[16]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Main Title"1:08
2."On the Prowl"1:43
3."Love Theme"0:47
4."Stealing the Exam"0:50
5."Mighty House of Gamma"4:18
6."Art in the Dark"1:14
7."Sweet Young Girls"2:02
8."The Wrong Answer"5:42
9."The Executionist Song"0:48
10."The Massacre"2:30
11."Courtney and Radish"2:09
12."The Chase"7:49
13."End Title"3:47

Home media

The film was first released on DVD by BCI on September 23, 2008 and was later released by Scorpion Releasing on September 20, 2011.[17] The film was released for the first time on Blu-Ray by Shout Factory on May 13, 2014.[18]

The film is referenced in Scream 2 (1997) along with other college themed slasher films such as: The House on Sorority Row, Graduation Day, The Dorm That Dripped Blood and Splatter University.[19]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Harper 2004, p. 47.
  2. ↑ Willis-Burch, Sherry (2014). "Interview with Sherry Willis Burch". Final Exam (Blu-ray)|format= requires |url= (help) (Interview). Shout! Factory.
  3. 1 2 "Final Exam (1981)". American Film Institute (AFI). Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  4. ↑ Muir 2012, p. 164.
  5. ↑ Powell, Scott (October 25, 2010). "This 'Final Exam' is enough to scare anyone". Gaffney Ledger. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  6. ↑ Albright 2012, p. 276.
  7. ↑ Nowell 2010, p. 234.
  8. ↑ Grossman, Linda (June 11, 1981). ""Final Exam": Some Answers Missing". p. 7.
  9. ↑ Siskel, Gene (June 9, 1981). "'Final Exam'". Chicago Tribune. p. 22 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Final Exam - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings". TV Guide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  11. ↑ Cedrone, Lou (June 30, 1981). "In 'I Sent a Letter to My Love,' Signoret shows she's still got it". The Baltimore Evening Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p. B5 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Binion, Cavett. "Final Exam - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  13. ↑ Galman, Brett. "Horror Reviews - Final Exam (1981) [Blu-ray edition]". Oh, the Horror.com. Brett Galman. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  14. ↑ Harper 2004, p. 89.
  15. ↑ "Final Exam (1981) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Final Exam by Gary Scott". iTunes. Apple. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  17. ↑ Jane, Ian (August 27, 2011). "Final Exam: DVD Talk Review". DVD Talk. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Final Exam (1981) - Jimmy Huston". AllMovie.com. AllMovie. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  19. ↑ Newman 2011, p. 389.

Works cited

  • Albright, Brian (October 24, 2012). Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-47227-7.
  • Harper, Jim (2004). Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies. Critical Vision. ISBN 978-1-900-48639-2.
  • Muir, John Kenneth (2012). Horror Films of the 1980s. 1. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-47298-7. OCLC 840902442.
  • Newman, Kim (May 10, 2011). Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-408-80503-9.
  • Nowell, Richard (December 23, 2011). Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-441-12496-8.
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