Social Bookmarking
[Finale]
Plot:A family descends into a vortex of denial and paranoia after the death of the oldest son. Though labeled a suicide, the bizarre circumstances lead the mother, Helen, to believe there are darker forces at work. Black paint was thrown over everything reflective in the son's decrepit Victorian house, an explosive trap set in his bedroom and a woman from his past haunts the cemetery where he lies buried. But when Helen's investigation threatens to ruin the life of her teenage daughter, Kate, and possibly her own sanity, she realizes there is but one escape from this nightmare world - the very route attempted by her dead son.
Cast:Carolyn Hauck,
Suthi Picotte,
Domiziano Arcangeli,
Regina Ashkinadze,
Michelle Aston.
My Thoughts:Average occult horror.
Review:"Finale" is an indie horror pic, which was directed by John Michael Elfers. The film has a pretty low budget, but still manages to make do with what it has thanks to some clever camera-work, and better than average lighting. The film follows a woman who loses her oldest son to an apparent suicide. The cops label it a suicide, but when the woman, her youngest son, and ehr daughter show up to investigate her oldest sons home, they find that his death has some ties to the occult. Specifically, a devil's cult which uses a local theatre and production company as it's cover to the outside world.
Now, she must discover who or what killed her son and why, before her and the rest of her family fall victim to it and it's followers. Looking at this movie, you can certainly see it has Italian horror influences, specifically Dario Argento influences. The lighting, the way scenes unfold, and the occult-chanting scenes, all have the same tricky camera angles, and funky colors that Argento used in his movies, most memorably..."Suspiria". The film is very much Italian horror influenced, and it comes complete with the weird flashback scenes which are designed to trip and freak out the viewer when they're suddenly sprung upon you.
The movie isn't scary by any means, but it plays into the occult themes very well. Most of the bad guys are the creepy, uber-pale-skinned types that you'd expect. They hide beneath the cover of stage thespians as a front for their occult activity. Becuase ya know, ever satan worshipper needs a day job. And they have followers posted in places which you'd never expect. So when someone shows up asking for help or assistance, they are totally unaware the person they're requesting help from is, "one of them"...so to speak.
The way the movie is shot is reminiscent of "Book Of Shadows:Blairwitch 2", only a lot less brighter color wise. But the film does boast the dry forest atmosphere, dead black ravens, creepy gravesite scenes, dilapidated factories, etc. The picture really runs with it's tones of despair, darkness, hopelessness, and danger. The characters are pretty well-rounded also, although at times, the daughter of the mother who is trying to find out how and what fate really befell her son, can get annoying at times.
Her character is very cliche. She's the one who doesn't buy it when her mom discovers what really killed her son, and mom has to spend valuable time trying to convince ehr daughter she's telling the truth. The daughter is the typical protest character, who needs to really get a clue, and quickly becomes an annoyance to the viewer due to her lack of common sense. The main leader of the devil's cult meanwhile, is quite a nice villain character.
She's creepy in a suburban-next-door-neighbor sort of way, and also has that evil, caniving look to her as well. The character is also scarier in her diabolical planning and plotting, than she is in her violent streak or ability to creep out the viewer. This movie isn't very bloody, which comes as kind of a shock. There is scenes of blood in the movie, but as far as being graphically violent, it's far from it. But I didn't mind really, as I guess the filmmakers wanted to show they could do a decent occult-indie-horror flick using good character development, and a strong story.
Instead of needing to use gallons of blood and gore. As far as occult horror is concerned, this movie has all of the obligatory caviats such as half-naked girls, orgy scenes, chanting scenes, demons, etc. The demons being the instrument of the cult, who have to make certain sacrifices to said demons, if they want the demons to do their "dirty work" for them. Despite being on a limited budget, the demons come out looking pretty well in the movie, and even have a clever failsafe attached to them, as to why people cannot see them as they attack.
The movies ending is also very strong, and while one fight scene in particular is extremely annoying, the final scene of the movie, where a big time sacrifice is made by a main character, gives the pic a powerful finale, no pun intended. If you're a fan of occult horror, such as "Suspiria" or "Devil's Rain", and also like indie occult horror such as "Crowley", and "One Of Them"...then you should find "Finale" to be a good film to check out when it hits stores this Tuesday.
Positives:Good directing, decent characters, interesting powers and abilities in reference to the films demons, a great ending, and nicely done ominoustone which lingers throughout the movie.
Negatives:The daughter character can be very intolerable and annoying at times.
Overall:Three stars out of four.
(
Talk about it in the Forums!)
(
Back to the main page)
