Horror 101: The Final Exam is a Killer 2001 Horror Movie Review

“Horror 101” reminds me of the sort of horror films that I was into when I was 10. It’s technically a horror film, so if you’re a child with a particularly over-active imagination, it can make you feel good about having sat through a “horror film”, but it’s not actually scary. In fact, the film is 88 minutes long and no one actually gets killed until 84 minutes into the film, and even then, it’s not shown (about an hour into the film, I was starting to wonder if anyone was ever going to get killed, so I suppose the fact that a murder does occur is a point in this film’s favour).


The film centres around a class of college psychology students that is made up of all of the stereotypes that you are familiar with from other teen movies: the jock, the nerd, the weird goth guy, etc, none of whom are played by anyone you have ever heard of before. The class must come in late one night to sit their final exam (that’s right, after everyone has gone home and the college is deserted), but the teacher (Bo Derek) doesn’t show and slowly the class members start disappearing one by one. Needless to say, the class immediately suspect foul play and then start suspecting each other.


I have seen films that are far worse than this one, which is why I gave it two stars instead of one, but the fact still remains that this film just isn’t very good. People disappearing just isn’t as scary as corpses being found, and the acting and script are pretty bad. The most amazing thing about this film is that it was successful enough to warrant a sequel (“Horror 102”). If you’re an easily scared kid, this might be a good choice for a sleepover movie (the PG-13 rating will probably keep your parents happy), but other than that, it’s probably best to give this film a miss.