| Final Exam | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Final_exam_poster.jpg) Promotional film poster | |
| Directed by | Jimmy Huston |
| Written by | Jimmy Huston |
| Produced by | James McNamara Perry Katz |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Darrell Catchart |
| Edited by | John A. O'Connor |
| Music by | Gary S. Scott |
| Distributed by | Motion Picture Marketing[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $363,000 |
| Box office | $1.3 million |
Final Exam is a 1981 American slasher film written and directed by Jimmy Huston, and starring Cecile Bagdadi, Joel S. Rice, DeAnna Robbins and Timothy L. Raynor. The plot follows a nameless killer stalking the remaining group of students left on a college campus days before the beginning of summer vacation.
Filmed in North Carolina and South Carolina with a cast of largely Los Angeles-based actors, Final Exam was released by Motion Picture Marketing in the winter of 1981. The film was met with a middling critical response, being both criticized and praised for similarities to Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980). The campus filming locations included Limestone University (Gaffney, South Carolina) and Gardner-Webb University (Boiling Springs, North Carolina).
While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic. The film has received a modern reevaluation by critics for the arbitrary villain and its focus on character development rather than gore and shock value.[2] The central male character in the film, Radish, served as partial inspiration for the character of Randy Meeks in Wes Craven's Scream (1996).[3]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
afiwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Harper 2004, p. 47.
- ^ Albright 2012, p. 276.