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Final Draft
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Gary Jukes (18th October 2007). |
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The Film
 Paul Twist (James Van Der Beek, Dawson's Creek), a down on his luck writer, is given the chance to resurrect his career and get his life back on track through his actor friend David Hockin (Darryn Lucio) who suggests Twist write a screenplay about a murderous clown character. Twist sets to work but is almost immediately assailed by writer's block, which leads Hockin to suggest that Twist locks himself in his flat until the script is finished in order to meet the deadline. Isolated, Twist starts suffer cabin fever and begins to lose his grip on reality, to the point where he imagines the characters from the script (who are based on real-life people from his past) start appearing in his flat. Unfortunately, so does the killer clown. Final Draft is a psychological thriller/horror written by first time writer Darryn Lucio (who also acts in the film) and directed by Jonathan Dueck and, as you've probably figured out already, is not exactly an original story. In fact, I was reminded of a number of Stephen King stories after the first fifteen minutes (I won't mention which, as I'm sure you can figure them out). James Van Der Beek (I always wondered what happened to him after Dawson's Creek) is decent enough, but the other performances are fairly amateurish. And although the clown character (with the decidedly unscary name of 'Punchy') is given prominence on the cover, he's very much a supporting character with the film focusing on Twist's spiral into madness. The pacing is slow and the scares few and far between, but it's the derivative script that really lets this one down.
Video
The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is grainy and a little too dark, but given the low budget and independent status of the film this is understandable.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is very quiet, so much so that I had to turn my amp up louder than usual. It's basically a dialogue-driven track, with no real directional effects (and little music) to speak of.
Extras
The main extra is "The Making of Final Draft" (24:03), a standard look at the making of the film featuring behind the scenes footages and interviews with the cast and crew. There's also a music video "Dr. Blind" (4:21) by Emily Haines; no idea why this is on here, as it doesn't appear to relate to the film in any way. Rounding out the extras we have the original Theatrical Trailer (2:06) and a Trailer Gallery ("Frostbitten", "The Cradle", "Alone With Her").
Overall
Equipment: Pioneer DV656, Toshiba 37X3030DB, Yamaha DSP-AX630, Mission speakers & sub,
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