A group of kids go off into the woods so they can party in peace.
That peace is quickly disturbed when a mysterious figure starts to attack them.
Can our heroes make it back to town before it it is too late?
A slasher movie from the director of The Fugitive? Sign me up!
The one downside to this viewing is that - since the original negative has been lost - this cut is assembled from a couple of different sources.
In certain scenes, the colours blend together, and the black characters look like outlines in some shots.
Despite these flaws, the film is still an effective thriller.
What always defined Davis’s work for the was the naturalism of the cast, and the sense of real character dynamics.
There is a real sense of camaraderie to the group. And this is important because apart from one early kill we spend the first half hour with the cast.
Made up partially of future familiar faces (Daryl Hannah, Rachel Ward and Joe Pantoliano play minor roles), they all come off as more naturalistic rather than fitting into cookie cutter archetypes.
Their initial incredulity at the strange goings-on is totally believable, and the way they breakdown and come back together is not predictable.
There is an organic quality, a sense of lived-in verisimilitude, to the cast that is hard to describe, but builds a unique kind of tension.
The killer is also interesting.
The killers of most slashers of this era are given some kind of distinctive visual identity: A mask, an injury or impairment.
Instead the killer is defined by their invisibility.
In one shot, as our heroes ride downriver, the camera holds on some bush on the rocks, which crawls back offscreen.
The film is also smart in how it keeps changing the environments - we go from camp, to a cabin in the woods, to a river raft, and onto a bus.
It never gets tiresome, and each environment gets a unique set piece. The attack on the bus in particular is a standout.
While I championed the film’s naturalism in the first half, as the situation gets more dire, and our heroes get more disconnected from civilisation, the film gains the feel of a gothic fairy tale: The isolated cabin in the woods, the introduction of the mad old woman/witch, and the killer who seems to be a part of nature itself.
The Final Terror is not a hidden masterpiece. But it has so many unique elements, and the cast are so natural, it avoids feeling generic.
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