Final Exam (1981)

***The first college campus slasher***

A select number of youths at a college campus in North Carolina prepare to take their finals, but a mysterious killer is loose on campus who wants it to be their final exam.

“Final Exam” (1981) is the first slasher to take place at a college campus, not counting “Black Christmas” (1974), which focused on a sorority house. It beat two other campus slashers to the theater by a few months: “Night School” and “The Prowler.” The Euro-slasher “Pieces” debuted the next year. These flicks paved the way for college slashers of the future, such as the “Urban Legends” trilogy (1998, 2000 & 2005).

Some people don’t like “Final Exam” because it focuses on mundane University drama for most of its first hour before the killer finally attacks. But I didn’t mind this as it helped you to get to know the characters, which consist of the usual types: the smart virginal girl, the nerd, the bully jock, the hot babe who knows it and uses it to her advantage, the dumb blonde who’s obsessed with love, the pathetic pledge and the born leader.

Another criticism is that the killer doesn’t have a mask and is without personality or motivation. But the lack of disguise makes the movie more realistic since a cumbersome mask wouldn’t be practical for an effective killer. Also, if you pay attention, one of the themes of the picture is the psycho killer that appears out of nowhere and seemingly slays at random, like the real-life Texas Tower Sniper at the University of Texas in Austin on August 1, 1966. Last weekend there were two massacres in El Paso and Dayton. How do you prepare for such an attack and how do you improve your chances of survival and victory if there is one? “Final Exam” addresses such issues.

“Final Exam” cost $374,000 in 1981 and therefore comes off as a TV movie, albeit with overt murders, some gore and a little nudity.

The film runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot at Isothermal Community College, just south of Spindale, North Carolina.

GRADE: B-