The Final Terror

At one point after the group of forest rangers escapes the night bus attack, Rachel Ward exclaims "I can't see a thing". Ditto for the viewing audience, because even the daytime scenes are so poorly lit that you will have little sense of what is taking place on screen. It's pretty difficult to scare people, when you can't see what is supposed to be scary. Technically "The Final Terror" is a disaster, and it's really a shame, because hunted in the woods films are one of my favorite genres. After seeing (or rather not seeing) "The Final Terror", I will stick with "Hunter's Blood", which is a great film of this type. Other than a strong opening and a surprisingly good conclusion, there is very little entertainment value here. Don't let the name actors get you excited either, because Rachel Ward and Darryl Hannah are just faces in the crowd, with zero character development. My advice, skip it. - MERK

The Final Terror otherwise known as Carnivore tells the story of a group who go out into the woods only to learn that danger lurks between the pines. Truth be told though not exactly original the movie was interesting, the characters caught my attention and I expected something well above par. Alas the longer the movie runs the more you realise that the creators had run out of ideas and it wanders into the realms of mediocrity building to a terrible finale. The finale in fact is so bad I get understand for the life of me what they were thinking. Starring a young Daryl Hannah and young-ish Joe Pantoliano this b-movie slasher effort is squandered potential and should have been better. The Good: Decent cast General competence in filmmaking The Bad: Fizzles out Terrible finale Things I Learnt From This Movie: When in a life or death situation a good tactic is getting high This proves it, the African American guy doesn't have to die first!

The problem with The Final Terror is that the characters are too smart and the writers aren't smart enough. When danger descends upon their large group, they decide not to split up, but to stick it out together in case the killer tries something again. It leaves the finale without much tension since you never really feel like anyone's in danger. The music score is great and the forest atmosphere is haunting at times, but it can't help much when the film lacks suspense and danger.

Young forest rangers and their lady friends take a trip into the wilderness and are terrorized by a woodsy maniac. Yet another slasher in the wake of Friday the 13th (1980), this one being OK as it tries to be a little different from the rest of its kind. This film tries to focus a little more on mood and suspense, rather than on gore and sex, although it does have it's share of that too. With the help of a decent cast, featuring some latter-day stars like Hannah and Ward, The Final Terror manages to be an entertaining enough effort. There's a few shocks, a good rock music score, and a creepy villain that also help carry the movie. It's a far cry from the superior likes of Just Before Dawn (1981), but it certainly beats the lesser efforts of movies like Don't Go in the Woods (1981) or The Prey (1984). ** 1/2 out of ****

2020, found this movie on Tubi, along with Grizzly, The Crazies (Code name Trixie), Without Warning (retitled The Warning) and Madman. I remember watching this. Scared me when I was a teen. 80's was the era of great slashers. One scene freaked me out. Surprised me to learn Joe Pantolino (Goonies, The Matrix, Sopranos and Bad Boys trilogy) stared in it. As well as Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill 1 & 2, Splash, Roxanne and Blade Runner) Very rare to find a movie that uses natural lighting instead of artificial lighting to capture details. Makes the scenes scarier. Watching the film as I'm watching this. Check it out.