Final Exam (1981) **1/2

Final Exam (1981) is your average early '80s slasher—populated by no-name actors, and hampered by mostly bloodless kills, zero back story, and a bit too much plodding around. There are a few fun characters (Radish in particular) and some pretty hilarious dialogue in this by-the-books Halloween (1978) (review) rip-off (down to a few of the cues in the score, which is solid overall) but it loses a lot of the goodwill it builds up by the final act. There is one scene in the film that is jaw-droppingly out of left field though (where I actually thought it was going to turn into Red Dawn (1984) for a moment) and could likely never be presented the way it is in a movie again.