End Of Term (2021) – Film Review
Director: Mat Menony
Cast: Peter Davison, Chelsea Edge, Ronald Pickup
Certificate: 15
By Roger Crow
Art college was such a memorable chapter of my life, I wish I could do it all again now. Thankfully our campus wasn’t haunted by the ghost of a psychopath, and as far as I know, none of the students crafted a BDSM chair worthy of the Saw movies.
Those are just a couple of ingredients of End of Term, which was filmed a few miles from my front door in 2016, and has been languishing in post-production hell since then.
I popped over to the sets a few times; interviewed the lovely cast and crew, and remember most of it like it was yesterday rather than seven years ago. So what of the finished film which is finally available on download?
Well, elements of it are spot on. The cinematography by Gerry Lively, who also worked on Hellraiser III, is rather good; The Usual Suspects-style framework of a traumatised art student (Chelsea Edge) being interviewed by a couple of seasoned detectives (David Bamber and Julie Graham) is also effective… to a point. And it’s great to see the much-missed Ronald Pickup, who passed away before the film was released, and the ever-brilliant Peter Davison, who was charm personified when we had a chat between takes.
“Sadly not much diversity”
A fine cast of photogenic ‘students’ too, including Ben Lamb and Darcy Isa, many who seem reminiscent of the posh art students I used to work alongside. The sort doing a foundation course rather than a gap year while waiting for their trust fund to mature.
No working-class art students here thanks very much, and sadly not much diversity either.
It’s like Midsomer Murders meets Saw at times, though that’s not the worst concept in the world.
Whatever original director Mark Murphy had planned for the movie has since been diluted. The interview scenes go on far too long; the editing needed to be far snappier, and the torture porn element may appeal to gore hounds, but after a while, it’s more tiresome than thrilling.
“Over-long”
During one of those set visits, one of the cast, who I hope was still in character, stared at me long after the interview was over. And no, it wasn’t me being paranoid. I didn’t need much more than that to know they were the killer, so the reveal when it comes, wasn’t exactly a shock. Nor was that last twist which most horror fans will guess a good 20 minutes before the final, inevitable shot.
Director Mat Menony may be a real person or an Allan Smithee-style pseudonym. Hard to tell with the lack of an IMDb presence before or after End Of Term. Either way, I’d rather see Mark Murphy’s original movie, which promised so much more, than Mat’s over-long version.
Cast and crew deserve an A for effort, but like some of that artwork during the final show, End of Term still feels unfinished.
