Final Exam

R

Released Feb 27, 1981

1h 30m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

List

13%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

18%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Stereotypical college students (Cecile Bagdadi, Joel S. Rice, Ralph Brown) are stalked on campus by a slasher/strangler.

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Alexandre L

Milk aged better than this movie, it's not even cheesy enough to be enjoyed

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/14/24

Full Review

M M

I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and then I watched this. Final Exam gets five stars for being miles ahead of The Last Jedi. In this movie, a guy kills college kids.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/16/23

Full Review

GrahamCracker C

I caught a few minutes of Final Exam (1981) on Shudder's Slashics and was intrigued, so I added it to my watchlist. The opening scene played like a paint-by-numbers 80s slasher (which I guess was just starting to be a trend in 1981) until Radish showed up following the opening credits. Joel S. Rice's proto-Randy (Scream, 1996) performance is definitely the highlight of the film (& sure to get noticed by today's true crime fans), but I also found a few other characters such as Wildman, Coach, and Gary & Janet more fleshed out than typical slasher fodder. The score is 80s horror synth meets after-school-special, which is effective more than not. Lastly, a few of the major cons for other horror fans (e.g. character development, a particular campus diversion, a subplot involving illicit drugs, lack of gore, controversy regarding the killer's backstory/motive) were not problematic for me. In fact, I found these devices, mixed with the chemistry & unexpected comradery of the characters, kept my attention; I could not simply rely on well-worn tropes. This is by no means a *perfect movie*, but I found it to be charming. I've watched it three times.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/03/23

Full Review

Computey D

Look even though it's slow, I enjoyed this film.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/20/23

Full Review

edward b

Pretty good effort for this 80s slasher film, well acted and some good character development make this better than the average 80s slasher. Well directed and the motive of the killer and the ending will make you scratch your head and look for clues within the movie all in all good film 3/5

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

steve d

Lame slasher incapable of scares.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Jimmy Huston

Director

Cecile Bagdadi

Courtney

Joel S. Rice

Radish

Ralph Brown

Wildman

DeAnna Robbins

Lisa

Sherry Willis-Burch

Janet

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Scott Tobias

The Dissolve

If Final Exam fell into any other genre, Huston's character work would be insultingly broad and inadequate, but it's rare to see a horror film devote so much time to humanizing the meatsacks.

Rated: 2/5

May 19, 2014

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

It might be more fun taking a final exam than watching such crap.

Rated: C-

Jul 31, 2019

Full Review

Heather Wixson

Daily Dead

I ended up being more than underwhelmed by Jimmy Huston's 1981 slasher Final Exam, which suffers from an almost total lack of atmosphere, violence & logic as well as a killer that might very well be THE most boring knife-wielding psycho stalker ever.

Rated: 2/5

Jan 8, 2016

Full Review

Dustin Putman

TheFilmFile.com

[Blu-ray Review] The narrative is by no means free and clear of clichs, but it becomes exceedingly obvious all the same that an attempt was made to separate it from the glut of similar body-count fare inundating the marketplace at the time.

Rated: 2.5/4

May 13, 2014

Full Review

Jeff Beck

Examiner.com

While Shout! Factory has once again done an impressive job with the restoration and special features, "Final Exam" is just another drop in the bucket of cheap and forgettable slasher flicks.

Rated: 2.5/5

May 12, 2014

Full Review

Mike McGranaghan

Aisle Seat

Quite possibly the dullest slasher movie ever made.

Rated: 0.5/4

Apr 28, 2014

Full Review

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Synopsis

Stereotypical college students (Cecile Bagdadi, Joel S. Rice, Ralph Brown) are stalked on campus by a slasher/strangler.

Director: Jimmy Huston
Production Co: MPM Film, Peninsula Management Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 27, 1981, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 2, 2018
Runtime: 1h 30m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)