The Final (2010)

The Final - Trailer

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

(Hated It) 

Netflix Synopsis:  Using gruesome forms of torture, an unpopular high school kid leads a group of outcasts in taking revenge on the "cool" kids who've always harassed them.

The Peeps:  Joey Stewart (director); Joshua Kabolati (writer); Marc Donato, Lindsay Seidely, Justin Arnold

Quick Run Down:  Dormant, Boring, Mostly Torture-less

Worth the Watch:  Nope

Dane and his friends are bullied by high school peers day in and day out, but they finally can't take any more and decide to stage a party where they plan to exact revenge.

Revenge movies are straight forward.  You've got the crime followed by the vengeance.  The action and the consequence.  Bully films are an even easier version of this.  A bunch of big kids pick on small kids, the small kids get pissed off, and go after/kill/torture the big kids. Simple math: the tormented becomes the tormentor.  We've all been bullied too, or at least felt helpless at the hands of some colossal asshole, so when we watch these films the characters are easy to relate to.  The audience is quick to identify with the 'picked on', and the film is usually able to give us a form of catharsis in the end, cheap and vicarious though it may be.  Still, we expect to feel some kind of release, maybe even pleasure, when we see the weak rise against the strong.  I think this is because we ourselves feel weak, that weakness is the bullhorn of subjectivity - our own insecurities, our own faults, and our desire to be accepted by others despite those things, but I don't know.  And this is a horror movie blog, not some psych lecture. So, The Final...

... is not a good movie.  It follows the basic formula but does nothing with it.  In the first half, there's an adequate set up for figuring out who the jackasses are, and there's even a kind of energy coming from the 'bulliers' that keeps you interested in the film.  Bradly - the biggest bully, played by Justin Arnold - does a good job at just being an asshole.  We all recognize him and can probably pick him out of our H.S. memories.  The acting, in general though, isn't good, so you're not really interested in the characters that much - bullied or not.  Still, you're willing to see the film through because you wanna know what the tormented kids are going to do once they finally have the upper hand. Unfortunately, that turns out to a let down.  Taking the place of what could have been good, physical torture is a bunch of highfalutin dialogue about bravery, nobility, and other romantic concepts that the lead kid - Dane (Marc Donato) - goes on about.  It's time and words wasted in a bully/torture flick and leaves the film feeling flat and preachy.  Plus, the things that DO happen are boring and amateurly presented.  There are a lot of awkward moments, way too much silence, and tons of gaps and/or loose ends.  The energy from the first half - when the bullies are doing the damage - is completely lost, and the film starts to feel constrained, too controlled, almost like it's chained in some way.  You WANT something good to happen, for the bullied kids to freak out or lose it, but the story forces them to maintain themselves too much, making everything feel calculated and unnatural.  This makes the real torture having to sit through Dane's speeches. which is maybe a fast one the director (Joey Stewart) was trying to pull on us, but I doubt it.  I think the movie just forgot what it was supposed to be doing.  Two final things: there's a sub-thread involving a Vietnam vet that is entirely pointless and unnecessary, and one of the scenes is a blatant rip-off of Audition.

So, if you want to watch a torture flick that doesn't have much of any actual torture in it but might be considered torture if you sit through it, check out The Final.  Honestly, I'd just watch the trailer and, if you're still interested, visit Youtube for other scenes from the movie.  It'll save you time.  If you feel like still giving the flick a go anywho, you know where to find it - Netflix!

This isn't near as cool as it looks.

"Think of this as the final, and there's only one question - what did I do to deserve this?"