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"Final Exam" is your typical cheesy 80's slasher flick. Not that that's a bad thing, but if poor production values and horrid acting aren't your cup of tea, than this movie probably wouldn't appeal to you.

I discovered this one a few years back when I was going through my "watch every college-based 80's horror movie"-phase. I thought that it had a decent title, and the coverbox was very reminiscent of an early "Friday the 13th" cover, so I figured that it would be worth the $1 that I paid for it. I won't go into the plot details since they are readily available anywhere, but I will tell you what I thought could have been better.

First on the list of faults is that there is no "whodunit" aspect to the picture. I'm not ruining anything for you since you find out after about five minutes that it isn't one of the students hacking people up, but just some random murderer that decides to put his skills to the test at a North Caroline college. That's why I chose "Leave your brain at the door..." as my one-line summary, since there is no thought needed as you watch the "plot" unfold.

As a few others already pointed out there is the opening scene involving two students getting sliced-up in a convertible, and then about an hour of dead time(pardon the pun). For about an hour following that we got some lame attempt at characted development that leaves out any murders. I don't mind some exposition in a movie, but these are all throw-away characters delivering horrible dialouge in bad situations. The final third of the film is when the rest of the students get dispatched of, and when they do there is absolutely no blood. I do tip my hat to the director because he throws in more suspense than your average campus murderer movie, but the payoff just isn't worthy of the buildup.

There were only two characters in the flick(and sadly, no, the lead isn't one of them) that were memorable at all. Radish, who reminded me a little of Randy from the "Scream" series, was our straight-guy, but was just too out-there to actually give you anything to care about. The same thing goes for the character of Wildman, a whacky jock who is somewhat likeable, but his character's actions are too erratic for him to really hold any solid ground on my care-meter.

Certainly one of the most wretched slasher movies ever made.

Timothy Raynor as the killer could not be worse.

The real blame for this turkey must be attributed to Jimmy Huston.

There is no gore, no suspense and no intelligence.

And it is slower than paint drying.

the first 5 minutes of the film are great, but then there is no action for the next hour. a psycho going around killing college kids, no motive what so ever wich i think is cool cause it's more scary like that. the one thing the movie tried to do is character developement. not that it's a bad thing to do, but they did overkill in it. the other problem is there were too many kills mixed in, too much too fast, though not a bad slasher at all, it's just that the first hour is kind of a waste but if you're a true horror fan like me you will see the greatness in the movie. i give it 6/10. decent suspense and maybe a few scares.

Final Exam is your average 80's slasher. It has some cool college pranks and all that tomfoolery that takes place at college campuses around the world(except Union). But this movie drowns in its own character development. It takes WAY too much time with its characters and totally forgets its a slasher flick. And the slashings aren't very good. I want gore with my slash! 6/10.

The opening of final exam seems pretty promising, a couple making out in a car are stabbed to death by a killer, Now the rest is a bore. The killer shows up at a college campus stalking students. Why? Who is this man? these are never quite explained. This is slow paced, even for a horror movie. Check out happy birthday to me. Or madman. they are much better.