My senior year of college, my best friend Marion and I challenged ourselves to watch every movie in the horror section of our local video store, Gold Star Video. We watched more than 200 films that year and kept a notebook about our quest. (This would become the basis for my podcast Horror Movie Survival Guide that now has over 450 episodes and is still going strong!)
Because we chose the films at random (mainly based on how cool the cover art was) and not alphabetically, near the end of the year we would have weekslong stretches where the movies were of pretty low quality. It could feel like a tedious slog sometimes.
But suddenly, like a diamond emerging from the crust, a film would appear that delighted us so much that we became obsessed with it. Our spirits would lift!
Now, obviously, we loved Scream and Scream 2 and Randy was our favorite character from the films, so we also made it our personal goal to watch all of the movies he name-checks in the series. One of those films was Final Exam.
Released in 1981, the film was written and directed by Jimmy Huston and shot in the Carolinas with unknown actors. On the surface, Final Exam seems like a run-of-the-mill college campus slasher, but this movie goes above and beyond.
It's the last few days of school before break and the kids at Lanier College have their final exams to worry about. Sure, there's been some murders on college campuses nearby, but not to worry!
This film has a cast of characters that are weird and quirky enough to stand out. You, of course, have your brainy virgins, your vindictive frat bros, your wild girls and wild guys, but they're all given unusual depth for a story like this and we fell in love with all of them. Especially Radish.
Played by Joel S. Rice, Radish is an uber-nerd – thick glasses, arms full of books and the whole bit – but he is also incredibly savvy about true crime and horror films, his knowledge pouring out of him as if he can't contain it. He's also the realist of the film, acknowledging that killers walk amongst us in our streets every day, often murdering for no reason. He's prepared for any scenario his mind can conceive, even if he seems paranoid to his friends.
Does this character sound familiar? I fully believe that Randy from Scream was based on Radish's character in this film. He's the absolute prototype!
I love Radish so much that shortly after watching the film in college, I made myself a shirt that said “RADISH ROCKS” across the front of it – absolute homemade movie geekery that I wore proudly around. You mean you don't know Radish? From Final Exam? Let me tell you about that movie …
There are so many cool scenes in this film that don't go the way you think they will – the bonkers exam distraction, Wildman's exploits, the anonymous killer and characters being more self aware than the usual 1981 low-budget horror flick.
For years, this would be the horror film I would suggest when folks asked for my horror movie recommendations, and I wore that Radish Rocks shirt often.
Fast forward to around 2007, when I was working at the New Beverly Cinema here in Los Angeles. I was thrilled to get to not only program Final Exam on film at the theater, but also host a Q&A with the star of the film, Cecile Bagdadi, and the writer-director, Jimmy Huston.
Showing people movies I love is one of my greatest joys, and film programming is just that on a grand scale, so you can imagine how glad film programming makes me.
Getting to talk to the people who made the film that gave me such immense happiness was unreal, and so enlightening, because I was now able to ask the questions about the film I had always wanted to ask, and now also learn straight from the source the stories and memories of filming Final Exam.
That screening was such a delight, and a few days later I was contacted by the company putting out the film on DVD for the first time. Jimmy Huston had recommended me for moderating the commentary on the disc, would I be interested?
WOW!
So that weekend I went down to Crossroads of the World in Hollywood to tape the commentary alongside actors Cecile Bagdadi, Sherry Willis-Burch and Joel S. Rice – Radish himself!
I, of course, wore my Radish Rocks shirt to the taping and when Joel saw it, he nervously laughed and said, “Oh! Did you make that shirt for today?” and I said, “Oh no, I've had this shirt for years!” He laughed nervously again and shifted slightly away from me. I think it threw him for a loop!
The taping of the commentary was magical for many reasons, but one of them is that I got to talk about my theory for the ending of the film. When my best friend and I first watched it, we saw the ending one way, and even had mad proof to back it up, though many people see it a more traditional way. She and I were surprised when other viewers didn't see it the same way.
So be sure to catch the film on disc, where you can listen to the commentary after you watch for the first time, then see what you think about my theory!
This is the mind-blowing part for me: I find a film and a character I adore when I am in college that I watch endlessly, giving me deep personal joy. I end up screening the film at the movie theater I work for and meet the star and director, which directly then leads me to taping the commentary on the disc of the film, therefore becoming part of the film's legacy, in a way. I perhaps even changed people's minds about the ending after they heard my hypothesis. I am so grateful and honored and still quite flabbergasted at these turn of events.
You never know what watching one movie can do.
I am proof it can change your whole life.
