Development

After the success of such slasher films as Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980), executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff pitched the idea of making a horror film to his friend and co-producer, Joe Roth.^[3] The project marked Arkoff's first major feature following his departure from American International Pictures.^[4]

The original screenplay, which had the working title Bump in the Night,^[5] consisted of a sparse plot about "rich boys and girls going off into the woods and getting killed."^[6] The screenplay was co-written by Ronald Shusett, who had previously co-written Alien (1979) with Dan O'Bannon.^[7]

Casting

Most of the cast of The Final Terror were inexperienced or new actors. Australian actress Rachel Ward was cast in the lead role of Margaret after Davis had seen a modeling portrait of her in Roth's office.^[8] Akosua Busia auditioned during an open casting call on Hollywood Boulevard, and was cast in the supporting role of Vanessa; Busia, the daughter of Ghana Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia, was a childhood friend of Ward, who became acquainted with her while they were studying in London,^[9] and neither were aware the other had been cast in the same film until the first day of shooting.^[10]

In the role of Windy, Davis cast Daryl Hannah, who, like Ward, had little film experience at the time.^[11] Davis cast Joe Pantoliano in the role of Eggar after he entered the audition in character, impressing Davis with his commitment.^[12] Donna Pinder, who portrayed Mrs. Morgan, was producer Arkoff's daughter, who later married Roth.^[13]

Filming

Director Davis was recommended for the film by Shusett, who had been impressed by Davis's previous work.^[14] Davis was also hired by producer Joe Roth to serve as cinematographer, billed under the pseudonym "Andreas Davidescu" to avoid problems with the filmmakers' union.^[15] Prior to shooting, Davis and Roth scouted various locations, including the Mount St. Helens area in Washington.^[16]

Principal photography took place largely in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park,^[17] surrounding Crescent City, California, and southern Oregon in September 1981,^[18][19] under the working title Three Blind Mice.^[20] The accompanying crew consisted of only four people.^[21] The majority of filming was completed by Davis, though the opening sequence featuring the anonymous couple being murdered was later filmed by an editor.^[22] Some of the establishing camp sequences were filmed at the California Conservation Corps camp in northern California.^[23]

During filming, the cast and crew stayed in Crescent City and would enter through the border before filming all day in Oregon and also traveling along the Whitewater River.^[17] The filming conditions were difficult due to weather conditions, with frequent rain.^[17] One evening during the shoot, locals gave the cast marijuana brownies, which resulted in some of them being admitted to the hospital.^[24] Upon driving in one of their cars, the crew had hit a Redwood tree and Smith cited their excuse was "someone putted the tree out on the street".^[24]

According to Adrian Zmed, Davis shot an abundance of film, rolling the camera frequently; the scene with Zmed's character howling was done in an estimated 15-20 takes.^[17] Zmed mentioned that filming the sequence in which Eggar was strangling him during a fight was difficult to shoot; at the time, Zmed felt he was unable to enact being in real physical pain, so he asked stunt-woman Jeannie Epper to pull the rope tighter around his throat.^[17] The cast performed the majority of their own stunts.^[17] In the log-trap creation scene where Dennis Zorich was climbing up the tree, they used real tree-climbers and logging techniques.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews at the time of its release,^[29] with numerous critics drawing comparisons to Deliverance (1972) and Friday the 13th (1980), due to the film's slasher elements set against a survivalist narrative.^[7][35][36]

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times noted that the film does not contain "much of a story," though conceded that "Davis has managed to turn out a competent, though scarcely compelling, film with believable people. Although not for the faint of heart, The Final Terror avoids lingering morbidly over its bloodshed, and at least is not yet another exploitation of extreme violence against women."^[37] Writing for The Baltimore Sun, Stephen Hunter faulted the film as it "never builds any real tension or energy, even within the limited confines of the genre...  Although the kids...  are handsome enough, they never develop any personalities."^[36] Hunter did note, however, that the film's "production values are unusually high."^[36] The Palm Beach Post's Kathryn Buxton praised the film's setting and "likewise scenic cast" but added: "After her throat is cut by the slasher, Ms. Hanna is sewn miraculously back together by Ms. Ward, and she is up and walking in no time. Like that scene there is little sense, or tension, in The Final Terror."^[38]

Terry Lawson of the Dayton Journal Herald criticized the film's plot for being derivative, adding that both Ward and Hannah "do their jobs, which is to look beautiful even when scared out of their makeup. The only real performance in the film is rendered by John Friedrich, who does a Robert De Niro imitation that is so blatantly bad that one can only hope he intended it as parody."^[35] Mike Hughes in the Lansing State Journal, was also critical, writing: "Davis seems to think he's doing a Bergman drama. He fills Terror with overlapping dialogue, mumbled lines, meandering cameras. Unfortunately, this is no high-class drama...  Despite the arty efforts, Final Terror emerges as a movie only James Watt could love. It shows forests aren't that much fun after all."^[39] In their capsule review, the Shreveport Times deemed the film "another vehicle in the current horror genre with a newcomer cast and not much else."^[40] Writing for the Gannett News Service, Mike Hughes denounced the film as "cheap and bad, without trying to be...  The cast is filled with good people who got better roles while this film was waiting on the shelf."^[33]

On the internet review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 33% approval rating with an average rating of 4.29/10 based on 9 reviews. AllMovie gave a 2.5 rating, citing the film as "mediocre" and recommending "worth watching more for its cast than for its clichéd story".^[41]

Home media

The film came into home video on VHS in the mid 1980s and later had a DVD release in the 2000s. In July 2014, Shout! Factory subsidiary Scream Factory released the film in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, which contains the R-rated version.^[42] Accordingly, the original negative and interpositive were all lost, and Scream Factory went through six film prints lent by film collectors to deliver the best looking reels for the combo pack.^[42]