Tuesday 12 June 2012

Final Scream

"Final Scream" aka "Final Stab" (2001, Third Millenium, Sidekick Entertainment, David DeCoteau) is a crappy early 00s slasher I picked up in a bargain bin when I was 15.

It's worthy of the bargain bin, but don't me wrong, it has its charms. And for what appears to be a college project, it's pretty good! Although, it's no 'Evil Dead'.

The basic plot is that Angela (Melissa Renee Martin) and her troubled boyfriend, Charlie (Jamie Gannon) are invited to her rich, bitchy sister, Kristin's (Erinn Hayes) party in an abandoned house, along with some old college friends.

When they get there the party soon kicks off (rather disappointingly. Where's the tunes? Where's the booze? Definitely a shit party), until suddenly Steve (Michael Lutz) is 'brutally' murdered.

The worst cross-eyed-slow-mo fake murder ever! Hilarious!

Charlie freaks and bolts. We learn his parents were murdered in front of him, and he has never recovered.... meh.

So Steve's not dead. This is all a 'murder mystery' weekend set up by Kristin to freak out Charlie and get at her sister. Angela soon learns this and spends the rest of the movie not believing that any of the bodies of her friends are truly dead... silly her, they totally are! There is a real murderer prancing about, he's killed the faux murderer, Wallace (Donnie Eichar) and is now wreaking slaughter around the house.

Can Angela and her friend Doug (Chris Boyd) find her boyfriend and save what's left of her friends before it's too late? Can she indeed.

This movie follows all the slasher conventions. It's predictable, but I've actually seen much worse acting, making this not the worst £1 movie I own!

The opening scene is fun. It kind of pays homage to the first 'Scream' (which is also mentioned in the script), but unlike most slashers it's the guy who's getting all naked and sudsy. Sadly, they went for the 'it's only a dream' get out clause. Lazy, but useful to the plot for setting up the crazy boyfriend character.

There are 3 badass dudes, you know they're badasses because they're wearing tank tops of course, who are out to spoil the party. I don't think these characters were used to their full potential. But, hey I'm just the viewer. Also one was called Cosmo. Seriously. Cosmo!

The plot constantly quotes horror movie titles, which instantly makes me think of 'Scream 3' and just about every other low budget, teen horror out there.

Our good friend 'shaky cam' makes a few appearances, and the director appears to be a Scooby Doo fan, going by all the dodgy slow motion chase and hide scenes in this film.

The end twist is transparent, but not too badly revealed, and the gore is valiantly attempted with some good prosthetics (albeit off the shelf) and the blood sprays a-plenty.

No girls get naked in this movie, but there's talk of homosexual experimentation in college, and one guy has a nice six pack!

All in all, not a movie I'd recommend you pay more than the Amazon asking price of £2 for. It's less 'Scream' and more 'Scooby Doo', as I said.

But I've seen a lot worse, and as I mentioned the acting's surprisingly good for such a low budget attempt!

[Picture: Sidesick Entertainment]

Hani


No comments:

Post a Comment