All Rise...

The finale of Judge David Johnson's life story is going to include monkeys on bicycles.

The Charge

The end is just the just the beginning.

The Case

When the oldest son of the Michaels family seemingly commits suicide, it sends the family into a tailspin. What makes the typical grieving process worse is the eventual revelation that there might have been some nasty supernatural goings-on involved with his death. As mom and sister dig deeper into the circumstances they discover some frightening stuff involving a cult that has group sex near bonfires and writhes in poorly edited, hard-to-see sequences.

In fact, there is some genuinely dark stuff going on and it infests the family, prompting mom to rub black paint on all the mirrors and reflective surfaces. Also some guy gets hanged with Christmas lights.

There are a few interesting ideas working in Finale, as well as a handful of creepy scenes, but the overall experience falls short of something worthwhile. I'm all for wacky evil cults and insidious, malevolent forces infiltrating hapless American families. The mayhem that goes down in Finale is too hackneyed and shot so erratically it's difficult to latch onto. The gore is serviceable, but not nearly copious or interesting enough to keep horror fans engaged. And the ending, which involves a stand-off between the unmasked killer and our heroine during the live showing of a play is dopey (see, finale, get it?).

A low-rent screener from Image: a shifty 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 2.0 stereo, and no extras.

The Verdict

Guilty.

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