If anything you have to admire “The Final Terror” for being a slasher survival film that eschews the horny annoying teenagers. In exchange, we have younger adults that also happen to be forest rangers. And yes, they’re horny, too. But you take the good with the bad. Teamed together for some kind of task in the wilderness, they happen to mistakenly trespass in the backyard of a vicious hunter. Said hunter is part Jason Voorhees, and part Yautja sans the science fiction.
After much bickering among one another, the group of angry young male rangers, pick up a few of their female co-workers, and head out in to the woods for the weekend. While there, the terror begins. As does the typical bickering we see within the realm of the slasher film. Among the cast, there’s a young Joe Pantoliano, Rachel Ward, and Mark Metcalf post “Animal House.” A lot of “The Final Terror” feels like a precursor to “Predator,” where a bunch of mismatched individuals have to resort to survival tactics to take down a vicious killer in the woods that’s almost impossible to kill. Director Andrew Davis’ film succeeds in being moody and atmospheric, even if it’s never quite scary. The characters here aren’t so much dumb, as they are average people that accidentally walk in to danger.
Soon the rangers begin missing, and the killer gains the advantage, despite being outnumbered, and generally overpowered. Davis makes the forest feel very vast and menacing, especially when the characters have no idea who or what is hunting them. This makes them even more panicky, and prone to mistakes pretty much anyone can make. There’s an especially tense moment where the group camps out in their bus to wait for day, and are terrorized by the stalker, who lurks outside making noise to draw them out. “The Final Terror” isn’t a masterpiece, nor is it a gruesome kind of slasher film, but it works as a surreal and grim survival thriller that channels “Southern Comfort” in some instances. For a film that has gone through hell and back and needed to be cobbled together by prints from a few film collectors (as the prologue of the blu-ray explains to the audience), “The Final Terror” looks and sounds very good.
The occasional crackling in the audio and red blemishes on the sides of the film may also add to the grindhouse aesthetic that is still so popular these days with modern horror fans. The Scream Factory release comes with a DVD and Blu-Ray and includes some fine bonus materials. There’s “Post Terror: Finishing The Final Terror” a twenty two minute feature that explores how the filmmakers and the financiers clashed during filming. “The First Terror with Adrian Zmed and Lewis Smith” is a sixteen minute segment with interviews with some of the cast whom discuss their film careers. There’s the theatrical trailer, a Behind the Scenes Still Gallery, and finally a Commentary with director Andrew Davis; in the commentary, Davis who gives a solid exploration about the experience filming on location, and how he staged much of the action scenes.