The Final Terror

This mediocre slasher film from director Andrew Davis is worth watching more for its cast than for its cliched story. The film is set in the usual isolated forest, where a ratty-looking killer (who seems to be covered with Spanish moss) makes survival difficult for some foul-tempered campers. Among the doomed are future luminaries Rachel Ward, Daryl Hannah, and Adrian Zmed. The leaders, played by Joe Pantoliano and Mark Metcalf, are some of the most irritating characters in any 1980s slasher film, bickering until they sound like tenderfoot versions of Barnes and Elias from Platoon. The characters' constant ill temper is designed to add to the tension, but serves only as a distraction. The murders are low-key and dull, save for Metcalf's well-handled death scene, and the obligatory "telling of the legend" is less spooky than obnoxious.