Finale / The Ringmaster - Movie Review

What do you get when you take the French Extreme Hall of Fame Frontiers, mix in the Red Room of Darkweb infamy, and pour it into a Danish mold?

A complicated explanation.

Let’s Discuss.

For the purposes of this review, I’ll be referring to the movie as Finale. It was obviously the intended title based on the script and was only changed to The Ringmaster for the Western release of the novella / movie. As you can see above, the film was titled Finale in the Danish release.

Finale is a speculative / slasher / extreme violence film brought to us by writer / director Soren Juul Petersen based on the award winning novella, Finale (The Ring Master in Western markets) by Steen Langstrup.

Oooo, award winning you say?

Keep it in your pants. I searched through all of my normal writing and records sites in an attempt to find the “award” this originally self-published novella supposedly won. I reached the 8th site before I gave up. I’m assuming it must have gotten a participation ribbon from some Danish publishing house.

So, let’s just say it’s based on the novella by Steen Langstrup.

Steeeeeeeen.

Great name.

Oh yeah, the movie. Hold on…

The film follows two beautiful women on the graveyard shift at a gas station on the finale of the FIFA World Cup. One is the daughter of the business owner, a stuck-up rich girl. The other is the white trash full-timer at the station with a red neck boyfriend and no prospects. With nothing in common, both expect to have a boring, uneventful night. Unfortunately, a secret cabal of human traffickers has different plans. What starts with seeming pranks and mischievousness escalates into a deep dive into the depravity beneath the tides of the dark web. Will the girls survive to the finale of their captors’ sick game, or will they bow to their inevitable end? Find out tonight in Finale.

Sounds intriguing right?

Did I like it?

Yes.

Would I recommend it?

No, Absolutely not.

I think this succeeds at everything it sets out to do. It is a work of art that was solidly built and executed. It’s got great production values. The entire cast is convincing and believable. The camera work and cinematography is that Eastern European Ikea Commercial Crispness we’ve come to expect from the small wealthy EU countries. It’s a well made film. I think the story it tells and the way it tells it is brilliant. I think the message it relays is meaningful and depressing to the extreme. It has everything needed to make a successful Extreme film. I would put it well below the greats like Martyrs, Inside, Frontiers, High Tension, and Them, but to even be on the good list is an incredible achievement. Most extreme films forget the main reason for the subgenre. Exemplified in the French Extreme movement—telling a message that needs to be heard through an expression of cinematic rage and brutality, because society didn’t listen when you said it nicely—is the mission of films of this ilk. More often than not, this is discarded in favor of simple torture porn. There are more movies in the dumpster than on the list of watchable titles.

So, why wouldn’t I recommend it?

Because this is a film that excels at escalating tension to the point of nausea. It doesn’t cut away when the safety pins hit the nipples, if you know what I mean. This is a graphic film that steals your hope and holds it hostage so effectively, my viewing partner Leslie had to quit watching an walk away. I can’t blame her. I’m callous due to the real-life violence I witnessed / experienced in my childhood and adolescence. Sometimes it’s easy to forget where the line is for a normal person. I think the filmmakers pushed a step beyond the acceptable.

Did it ruin the movie? No, but it reduced the audience who will see the triumph at the end of the gauntlet of terror. When you show a safety pin nearing a woman’s nipple, cutting away would not only be scarier, but it would make the film more palatable for the major audience. It doesn’t matter how good your message is if you can’t find an audience. From reading a few dozen reviews of the film, (majority are 3 stars or less) This is the main detractor. The first 2/3rds of the film is a taught, fun workplace thriller in the vein of the iconic The Gas Station segment from John Carpenter’s Body Bags anthology. It’s nothing spectacular, but it was better than 90% of the films I’ve seen recently (*see previous post, 8 Movies to Avoid… Excelsior!) It built the tension expertly by providing consistent, well paced red herring moments. It’s a slow burn until boom, nipple name tag.

Don’t you dare call spoilers. You aren’t going to watch this.

Let me breakdown the film as I see it. I’ll attempt to explain the message the film expresses in its acts.

We the viewer are immediately introduced to the two maidens in this tale, Agnes and Belinda. Both are tragic in their own right. Agnes is from a well-off family, but she was forced to give up her dreams of studying psychology at university, first by her father when he needed her to work at the gas station, and secondly by her fiancé Benjamin, when he decided to apply for a job in Hamburg, Germany, a country away. Belinda is from whatever Danish people call the hood. She’s from a poor, abusive background. She’s been made homeless by her own mother when Belinda refused to kick her scummy boyfriend to the curb. She’s taken so much abuse without fighting back that she is numb to it. Both women are being abused by the patriarchy. It’s easy to root for them, to hope they’ll find a way to be happy. They definitely made me reflect on employees I had in the past and people I’ve worked with.

Once we’ve gotten to know them well enough, then the tension escalates. The customers get more forceful, the odd flashes on the security cameras increase, and shapes begin encroaching from the darkness, but every time we think we’re at the crescendo we decrescendo back down to the baseline. It’s so frustrating that you begin hoping for that catalyst to finally get introduced. You start rooting against these innocent women.

Then when that crescendo comes, you’re introduced to the ringmaster. Essentially, he and the Unseen Woman are the narrators. Their opaque commentary provides the outline to the story. The interspersed cuts to the future provide context to the final reveal of the women bound, beating, and gagged. You rooted for this? Are your proud of yourself?

You pray that they’ll make a quick escape.

God says no.

The brutality is immediate as we watch Agnes’ loving fiancé stabbed, burned, beaten to a pulp, and then drawn and quartered. The camera never cuts away.

We got to know the girls in Act 1 and we were entertained by their terror in Act 2. Those reasons are why this moment hurts and why we, the viewer, feel so guilty.

Belinda is beaten in front of us and then her breasts are punctured again and again with a staple gun. She’s held at knifepoint and forced to pierce Agnes’ nipple with her name tag’s safety pin. It’s gut-wrenching and awful, but you chose to watch this. You chose to see those girl’s frightened and tormented.

Where did you think the story was going?

This was always how it was going to end.

Until the girl’s break free and bail you out. When they fight back and slowly and brutally combat The Ringmaster, played with scene chewing brilliance by Damon Younger, you cheer the violence they inflict on him. You cheer as the girl’s escape and all of the players are dead. You breathe a sigh of relief when Agnes is taken into protective custody, but she’ll never be right.

Her survival just increases the guilt. You cheered for her to kill just like you hoped something bad would happen to finally pay off all the jump scares and spooky moments at the beginning. You are no better than the rich bastards who’ve built this ancient industry that has stretched from Ancient Rome to the modern day.

Whether you watch porn on sites like PornHub (who have allegedly hosted videos of human traffic victims and sexual assault) or you once clicked a link on Kazaa and watched a video of a reporter being beheaded in Afghanistan, your callous sense of morbid curiosity is no excuse for taking that deeper dive. There are gateways in this world that need to be slammed shut. Things are being done to our brothers and sisters that are egregious and unthinkable. Every time you click on one of those videos, or support industries that lend revenue streams to these evil entities, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

Like I said, it’s a good message.

It’s too bad the filmmakers pushed the limit beyond palatable for the majority of the viewing public.

Don’t watch this film if you want to be in a good mood or want smile for the rest of the day.

The Ringmaster is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime.