2001’s Final Scream (Also known as “Final Stab”) presented me with an actually quite nice moment as It’s, in effect; a little bit of a J.R Bookwalter reunion. Reuniting the SOV Six packs producer David Decoteau with Matthew Jason Walsh of “Zombie Cop” and “Legend of the Mummy 2” fame. From what I can see, I don’t believe I’ve covered a Decoteau written or directed film on this channel yet…well…barring the L.A portions of chickboxer…but I hardly think they count. The main reason I’ve tended to avoid Decoteau’s work stems largely from the same place as to why I don’t cover more Jess Franco movies honestly; Davids work is…uneven. I think thats the kindest way I can put it. While he has had some modest hits with things like “Puppet Master 3” and “Witchhouse”, a lot of his other works, I would argue, barely constitute films.
Stuff like his “1313” series of movies which are LITERALLY 70-90 minute features where 2-3 veteran horror actors or actresses will kind of wander around a set and say slightly mysterious stuff while a load of hunka-dunk guys ALSO wander around a set or location taking there tops off and saying things that are moody or also mysterious (theres 14 of those)… and If he isnt doing stuff like that he works in the lower end of MOST of the major genres. Producing films where the quality is SO uneven in SUCH large volumes that if I stopped reviewing anyone else and JUST focussed on his movies from now, i’d have a stable run of reviews to see me through to the end of the 2030’s. Whether it’s seasonal fodder, family flicks or his traditional ground of horror. Decoteau’s a machine just…pumping out 6-10 films a year. And with a staggering 176 directing credits and NO sign of slowing down, It was all but inevitable that i’d end up covering one of his movies at some point.
So what is “Final Scream”? Well…if the box art and the fact it was made in 2001 didnt give it away, “Final Scream” was an attempt by Decoteau to cash in on the “Scream” franchise. Scream 3 came out in the year 2000 and, in an attempt to try and trick people into thinking “Scream 4” was a thing, Decoteau rushed through a movie with ZERO connection to the Scream franchise apart from the fact 2 of the characters like horror movies, shot it in 4 days and kicked it up the arse and out the door as “Final Scream”. After a while Dimensions films, the owner of the scream franchise, clocked this and threats of legal action were sent Decoteau’s way. Forcing him to change its name to “Final Stab” which, in itself, is a reference to the “Scream” universe.
The film’s main characters of Angela and Charlie. And the film opens with Charlie watching a horror movie when he gets a call from Angela who’s vying for some “Bouncy Bouncy” Charlie goes to freshen up, but while he’s in the shower theres a powercut. After some moody wandering around a dark house where someone appears to have left a strobe light on. Charlie eventually bumps into Angela the pair start preparing for the night. Charlie hears another noise and after exploring a bit more a scary killer jumps out and stabs him! But Oopsy doops! It’s just a dream! (ugh.)
It turns out that this is a reoccuring dream that Charlies has every night for years, and after trying medications, therapy and more nothing has shifted it, Angela is supportive of Charlie but just wishes she knew the best way to try and help him. anyway; this is basically a precusor to the next days events as we’re then introduced to Doug and Kristin. Kristin is Angela’s estranged sister and Doug has a history with Charlie and the pair are about to lay down some serious havok.
See; Kristin wants to reconnect with her sister, so she’s decided to throw a party and invite the pair over. The location of the party? Is the infamous ‘Palero Estate” so called because according to local legend, in 1995 the Palero family were all living their best lives when someone broke in and butchered all of them, with no witnesses and next to no evidence. At this point in the film the plan for the party itself is a bit vague, but Doug alludes to the fact that he’s not happy with what Kristins got planned. Kristin however has dirt on doug and basically says she’ll go public with it if he doesn’t help, She then tells him she wants him to go see Angela to invite her to the party acting as a kind of ‘middle man’ between Angela and Kristin because Kristin doesnt think that Angela will give her the time of day. Doug reluctantly heads off and Kristin starts work on preparing the house for the party.
Meanwhile; in the woods just behind the house, some dudebros are shooting the shit and one of them reveals that he’s found a flyer asking for actors to appear in a project that Kristin is working on. They think it’s some kind of play or art project, and because Kristin comes from a rich family and has always been a bit of a prep, the dudebros decide that nows the perfect time to dish out some sweet sweet bullying and they all agree to go stake out the house with the aim of sabotaging shit. Y’know, cutting the power, slashing peoples tyres, destroying any props needed…all that bollocks.
Its here that we’re introduced to some of our other characters for the film. Theres Steve and Brett our Jocks for this picture…AND NOTHING ELSE. and then theres Julie and Patrick, a couple who’ve agreed to help set things up and while setting things up Julie gets chatting to Patrick about Charlie and reveals that when she slept with her mums therapist (ugh.) she found out that Charlie had a lot of issues growing up. When he was a kid he witnessed his mum and dad get butchered by a random killer, noone was ever caught, no evidence was ever found and Charlie spent a not insignificant amount of time in asylums, therapy and on heavy medication…somehow the way Julie explains this makes it sound like Charlie is somehow a lesser being for having had that happen to him, and almost makes out that Angela could do better because of it…which is a bit odd.
As an aside, because it doesnt really fit in anywhere but I feel like I cant omit it. While this is all going on the dudebros start scoping out the house using cellphones and one by one each of these dudebros is picked off by the killer barring one. Who also gets killed but just…a little bit later into the movie. They don’t add ANYTHING to this picture. They eat up a not unreasonable amount of time given the films only about 74 minutes long. Honestly? I have no idea why they even made it into the final cut given they don’t actually interact with our main cast in any way apart from, I think, angela finds one of them dead in the final act.
Anyway! It’s the night of the party and Charlie and Angela have both been coerced into going and…I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible because I don’t want to overegg EXACTLY whats going on here. The pair enter the house and it’s revealed it’s a surprise party, but when everyone jumps out it triggers Charlie who has to go get some air. When things get a bit calmer Angela and Kristin bury the hatchet and the night finally gets underway. Only it doesnt, because almost immediately a “Killer” pops up behind Steve and “Murders” him! This traumatises Charlie who immediately bolts from the house again, Angela gives Doug her keys and tells him to go get help before she runs out of the house to try and find Charlie and it’s here the whole point of the film is revealed. And boy howdy is it convoluted.
So; it transpires that EVERYONE at the party with the exception of Doug hates Charlie. Like…they don’t just dislike him, they ACTIVELY hate him. Kristin thinks Angela can do better and doesnt want Charlie to join their family, so…shes told her friends that they’re doing a dry run of a murder mystery party and she wants Angela and Charlie to be the unknowing participants in this murder mystery party to see if it works out and to make sure all the clues are correct. That’s the OVERT interpretation of the plans though, what the friends are doing COVERTLY though is basically an attempt to break Angela and Charlie up. They’re pretty much ALL aware of Charlie’s background and they hope that if they can ramp up the scares enough it’ll make Charlie flip out leading to either Angela realising she’s let herself in for more than she bargained for, or Charlie being sent back to an asylum. Either way resulting in them splitting up.
They’ve all got fake blood pouches, they’ve hired an actor to play the killer and the plan is to have them all get “Fake” murdered one by one, then whoever is left will meet up at a gazebo outside the house where it’ll all be revealed as a funny joke and apart from Charlie being sectioned everything will be fine. Unfortunately; they didnt factor on their being an ACTUAL killer also on the premesis who begins to ACTUALLY murder the friends one by one. And…thats pretty much the rest of the movie. The friends slowly get actually murdered, and every single time they play the “Oh no! It’s the killer *PLEASE* don’t murder me!…oh wait he’s real! AGHHHH!” card. Angela and Charlie have a few heart to hearts, and all this builds to an final act finale that is BEYOND convoluted and was INCREDIBLY underwhelming…in a film where, I swear to god they TELL you the ending in the first 15 minutes and then act SUPER proud of themselves in the last 10 minutes as they retell you the ending again. Will Charlie and Angelas relationship survive!?, Who is the mysterious masked killer?! And did David Decoteau ACTUALLY watch any of the ‘Scream’ movies before writing this thing? All this and more will be answered if you check out “Final Scream”.
And what I find ridiculous about this film is it’s structure is INSANE. For the vast VAST majority of the 2nd act, this is one of THE most generic 90’s slasher movies i’ve ever seen. It’s not particularly badly written and they do handle some of what they’re trying to do with a modicum of respectability, but theres literally NOTHING here thats standout from any other slasher movie from the time. ALL the tropes are present in this thing from having multiple killers, to EVERYONES A SUSPECT! To the aforementioned final act where the final girl runs around the murder house one by one finding her dead friends and being all like “Oh no! My friends are dead!” it really doesnt miss a beat. But then bookending this generic middle bulge is some of THE most convoluted writing for a slasher i’ve ever seen. I’ve got to spoil the ending really to prove my point so a warning from here on in, but at the end of the film Kristin basically reveals herself to be the killer, and her plan was to basically kill off all her friends, who she didnt like anyway AND Angela and then pin it all on Charlie. Resulting in Kristin being able to claim her family’s FULL inheritance rather than having to share it with Angela. Charlie then reveals that him and Angela *THOUGHT* that was what Kristin was up to and so they COUNTER planned for it by making sure Angela’s “real” knife that kristin stole was swapped for a prop one. Angela then murders Kristin with a real knife.
But just before the credits roll they pull back a FURTHER layer by ending on an open ending that implies Charlie IS in a fact a killer and that he murdered Doug (and possibly others) for his own modus operandi (which…I mean, killing Doug would make sense because appatrently him and Doug had a sordid history…but the rest? I have no idea). Honestly the ending of this film reminds me of the ending of “Bill and Teds Bogus Journey” where everytime the bad guy has a “AHA! I’ve got you moment” Bill and Ted retort with their own “AHA! We knew you’d do that! So we did this!” it’s just…Such an odd contrast because that middle part of the narrative is SO predictable that when all this 4d chess bollocks turns up at the end, I had to kind of. Pause to take stock as it genuinely caught me off guard.
Thats not to say I think the ending is clever or particularly interesting. I think if your average stoner watched this thing they’d probably be like “WOAH! MATE! This is…WOAH!!!!” but for anyone NOT high as balls, it comes out of left field, feels tonally out of step with the rest of the narrative and doesn’t really hold up to much scrutiny. If Kristin knew that Charlie had a traumatised past, why even BOTHER setting the party up. Why not just kill Angela at Charlie’s place and then make it look like a domestic incident? I just…don’t get why it needed to be this elaborate grand set piece for any other reason than; “It makes a movie!”
Barring the beginning and the end of the film which are predominantly info dump sessions or dreams, the pacing of this thing is fairly fast, im not going to lie there is padding here, but it’s not intrusive padding…for the most part. Whats been done here is a “Pinch an inch” technique where they take an underrunning script and just make some scenes run on for a *few* seconds longer than planned. We’re not talking 5 minute sequences where nothing advances the plot, we’re talking, making driving sequences or establishing shots, juuuuuuuuuust a bit longer than they should be to just try and grab back 10 seconds here, maybe a minute or two there. The Dudebro subplot takes about 8-10 minutes and even though it adds NOTHING to things ultimately, the fact they spread those scenes out into 1-3 minute long bursts across the opening 30 minute runtime, makes it feel less like padding. Its nuanced padding, unintrusive padding, it’s there to just get it over the line, but not to the detriment of the rather generic main plot.
There isnt really much of a solid act structure either honestly; everything up to the party starting is really just kind of happenstance, theres no script structure that ties all these threads together, we’re just having characters thrown at us and being asked to weigh up how we feel about them. Theres almost no interaction between cast members outside of the pairings they’re introduced to us as. Basically up to the point where Charlie and Angela attend the party, the footage in front of that? Might as well be flashcards for all the coherence it offers in terms of a structured opening act. The 2nd act then BULGES out for i’d say about 40-50 minutes of the run time being slightly better structured but not by much, which ends up with a crushed 10-15 minute long third act that tries to come across as hyper intelligent but just, totally fails to read the room. In that regard, it is really kind of a mess.
The dialogue’s not too great either honestly, with some really rather flat lines that just about put the point across and progress the narrative, but they arnt inspiring or particularly interesting, nothing quotable or even really memorable on show here as we just kind of…grind through the plot from dawn to dusk. I was going to say that this film feels like someone “Half watched” Scream and then decided that writing snarky was ALL you had to do to win over Gen X’ers and Elder Millennials. But to be fair to Scream, at least it stuck to it’s premise of “Horror nerds get stalked by a killer who knows about horror movies” I mean; I don’t particularly like Scream, but at least it is what it is.
Final Scream is Non committal to it’s source material. Charlie and Kristin both mention they like horror movies two…maybe three times in this film altogether at the very beginning and very end. And apart from literally two mentions of both Friday the 13th and Halloween, this film doesn’t reference, mention or raise ANYTHING to do with horror movies. No references, no nerdy film maker talk, no mention of directors, NOTHING. And; in a way, i’m relieved, because one of my pet peeves with horror movies is when they get all self indulgent and fan wanky about existing horror IP’s to the point that they start dropping references or flat out naming horror movies to try and endeare themselves to the “Horror community”. But theres no worries of that happening here! Other than the mentions above, this film doesnt do ANYTHING like that…which totally defeats the point of it being a “Scream” knockoff…but I kind of don’t care.
As mentioned the script was written by Matthew Jason Walsh, we’ve already covered him off as part of our adventures into the SOV six pack, but I will say that this film falls just under halfway through his writing career and seemingly in a period where he was writing predominantly sequels and films based on other films, in fact, the film he wrote before this one is called “I’ve been watching you” and seems to be trying to do the same thing “Final Scream” is doing here, but with “I know what you did last summer” instead. As for the other writer AND director of this? David Decotau has 176 directing credits and 45 writing credits as of the time of writing, with notable entries including “Puppet Master 3”, “Sorority Babes in the Slime ball Bowl-a-rama” and “Creepazoids”. The mans a machine, a roger corman, Godfrey ho, jess franco type who fires films out faster than they’re loaded in. that is NO sign of quality…but in terms of volume…yeh…im pretty impressed.
On the direction front. *Sigh* its passable. This looks like a late 90’s/early 2000’s horror movie. And while they maybe overegg a few tropes here and there, the biggest issue I personally had was the fact they had a STRONG overreliance on strobe lighting to imitate lightning. But they had the ‘strobe’ set too fast and the intervals arnt random enough, so it just looks like someones left a strobe light on accidentally in the other room. For the most part I’d say the direction was perfectly serviceable for a film of this time and budget. In fact, i’d say given that it was shot in 4 days, i’m actually kind of impressed at how solid this has actually turned out. I mean; I want to be careful not to overestimate it’s quality here, in the grand scheme of 90’s and 2000’s slashers this is NO trendsetter. But it looks the part for the most part. I think if you’re looking for that, this might actually be up your ally.
Direction of the cast…isnt quite so sharp mind, while the in studio stuff is more than serviceable barring a couple of slightly jerky moments, the location work is a little disappointing honestly, cast members seem a bit lost, don’t really confidently deliver their lines and it feels (to me at least) almost like something was going on during the location shoots that made it difficult for the cast to focus on what was at hand. Whether it was time limitations, external distractions or just a case of the director or cast not being in their A-game headspace during these scenes. I cant say, it’s purely speculation. But I just feel like the cast really weren’t as solid outdoors as they were under studio conditions.
The cine, i’d say is probably this films strongest element. It still doesnt quite match the creative highs of mid budget horror cine. But it does feel like effort has been put into making this thing look as nice as it can be given the budget and time limitations. Shots mostly have decent composition of frame, theres a nice variety of shot types used and even some decent lighting implemented in places to help create a low light, but moody atmosphere without getting SO dark you cant see what’s actually going on.
Is it perfect? No. I personally feel that while the sequences are solid, they have a bit too much room to breath. I’d have preferred a much tighter cut edit with more experimentation in the shot types implemented. Dutch angles, dutch pans, All that good stuff. The energy in this edit is rather lacking, and I feel with a few more shot types and quicker cutting it could have created something that was a bit more engaging to the audience. As it stands, its more than functional and even looks great at some points. I appreciate given the budget and scope they probably didnt have time to be ultra out there or creative on construction. But it still would have been nice to see something beyond “Solid”.
Performance wise, ehhhhh…it’s TV acting. And not good TV acting…I dunno. Everyone here is trying, i’ll give them that…but ALL the performances are just…SO thin on the ground and so fake. An example being Michael Lutz and Forrest Cochran as Steve and Brett. 2 characters in this who…pretty much have NO point being here. What does Brett do in this film? Like; whats his actual function. As far as I can see, it’s to be a foil to steve for about 5 minutes and to help pad the runtime with an extra death scene. Steve doesnt fair much better getting about 10 minutes to actually have purpose in the film as the first “Fake victim” before getting 5 minutes to be the first “real victim” barring the dudebros and then he’s dead for the rest of the film. Neither of them, in my opinion at least, bring ANY presence to the role or the film even. I’d say they give a bad performance, but when the script gives them so little to work with in the first place, it’s no wonder they underperformed.
Probably the best performer in this is Erinn Hayes as Kristin, and even then thats a case of “The best of a bad bunch” shes playing it melodramatic…or at least…I HOPE she’s playing it melodramatic. And she really gets into that Bitchy badness with a zeal and relish that I felt quite passionately about, she made me dislike the character, which was absolutely the scripts intention. So I have to take my hat off to her. While I wouldnt say her performance was great, she got the job done without making me question her existence.
As for the rest of the cast. They’re the beigist performances i’ve ever seen. Part of that again is down to the script. Part of it may have been down to a lack of directional steer or direction that didn’t really give the actors much motivation as to the nature of their roles, but part of it HAS to be down to the actors just…not really giving these parts their all. I didnt feel passionate about any of these characters, non of them made me care about them or what happened to them. Ultimately; when a film leaves you thinking “Does it matter if these people are in the movie or not?” and they’re the some of the main characters…you know something hasn’t gone quite to plan here.
And finally; the soundtrack. If you’ve ever seen a full moon production, you’ve heard the score for this movie. Decotau has close ties to Charles Band and Full Moon Films. So it’s unsurprsiing that the scoring for this movie would pool from the same people who are seemingly on licence scoring for Full Moon. but yeh. It’s a somewhat generic midi generated border orchestral slush. It’ll make you feel something. But exactly what is hard to define. It’s not quite boredom, but it’s a feeling of muggy familiarity that’ll creep up on you and then leave you largely feeling unremarkable. Definitely not one I’d seek out. It helps to set the mood. But it’s just WAY too generic for my blood.
Final Scream was released in the UK on DVD by Third Millenium Films in early 2002. I’m having a bit of trouble pinning down an exact month of release in the UK but I can narrow it down to between January and June of 2002. After a brief circulation as a standalone release it would later end up being one of the STAPLE films for release as part of the various Prism Leisure multi film DVD packs that were often bundled up with DVD players to help make it look like you were getting a better deal. And when I say a staple, I am speaking anecdotally here. But from memory this thing was EVERYWHERE. I struggle to think of a time I didnt see one of those DVD bundle sets where that film wasnt included SOMEWHERE on it. As a result amazon is PLAGUED with DVD copies of this movie going for next to nothing. The DVD copy was also quite sophisticated for a low budget pressing. Theres a trailer, scene select a photo gallery. And an interactive DVD menu. Which genuinely surprised me as I was concerned this film wouldnt even have a play button quite honestly.
After its DVD release it pretty much disappeared into the ethos until 2022! When Massacre Video announced a VERY nice looking Bluray reissue under it’s alternate title of “Final Stab” and I feel that through a mixture of mixed reviews about selling the film as something it isnt, the misleading promotional material and the lawsuits. Massacre have learnt a valuable lesson here and have VERY wisely chosen to release the film with alternate artwork on the packaging. It now bears ZERO resemblance to the “Scream” franchise…and honestly; I feel that that’s the best way to package this as I feel people may get on with it better without the pre-established subconscious bias. Features include a 2k Scan from the original 35mm print…THIS THING WAS SHOT ON 35MM!?…GOOD LORD…. … anyway. Theres a new audio commentary with Decoteau and some trailers..so extras ARE a bit thin on the ground…not that it matters because this was a limited edition release thats now out of print. But i’d put money on their being a standard edition reissue in future…so..if you want one. Maybe give it a year or two…
Final Scream isnt as bad as it could have been. But thats faint praise when you consider that it could have also been SO much better. This is just a fairly run of the mill slasher that doesnt rock the boat much…which really is part of the problem. It’s a solid enough production with a script that doesnt exactly wow, but it just about does enough to keep a feint interest held to it… some of the cine and direction gives the impression it’s probably on a bigger budget than it actually was. But with a mixture of bizarre script choices in places, mixed to poor performances and a total unwillingness to really do ANYTHING interesting with the pitch beyond “Stick to the formula” this movie left me somewhat tepid. A middling slasher thats notable really more for it’s blatant attempt at trying to rip off a then popular franchise more than anything else. I’d say this might be worth watching as a bit of an oddity. But otherwise, there are PLENTY of better slashers out there to explore.
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