When I received the DVD for Genus Entertainment's "Final Draft", the cover kind of jumped out at me. No, I don’t mean that it jumped out like a kid in a bad mask at a haunted house… more like the imagery caught my attention. The foreground shows a close-up of a horribly burned clown's face. In the background is a part of couch with a (possibly) dead woman lying on it. Then I saw the name listed above the title…. James Van Der Beek. Right off the bat, I did what no critic should ever do. I made a judgment call that this was probably going to be a terrible movie. Tired of 'killer clowns' and unsure of Van Der Beek's abilities to play anything other than an aging teenager on a nighttime soap opera, I prepared for the worst. Proving that I should never judge a book by its cover (or a DVD for that matter), "Final Draft" actually gave me more than I bargained for.

The best news was that it was not exactly a slasher flick with a clown for an antagonist. Instead it was a psychological thriller, pitting Van Der Beek's character against his own tortured psyche. The better news is that Van Der Beek does a respectable job of playing the angst-ridden artist. He still looks a little too young, but emotionally fits the role of Paul Twist, a writer suffering from a seemingly insurmountable case of writer's block. After selling a successful screenplay, Twist is expected to churn out another one. Unable to get a word put to paper, he follows a friend's advice to lock himself into his apartment until he can complete a new one. No… no pressure…

Alone in his apartment, Twist begins to reminisce about past experiences including a rather horrifying one in which he witnessed a clown doing a fire-eating trick that went awry. Thinking that the accident was a part of the act, the children continued to laugh as the clown died. So Twist begins to write about the experience, creating a fictionalized account that involves people from his real life. People who have hurt him in some way or another in the past. We begin to see with his mind's eye as these characters are fleshed out and we see their fate. You can guess what happens next.

The DVD for "Final Draft" offers up a decent looking widescreen presentation, as well as a handful of features. A 'Making of' featurette offers interviews from director Jonathan Dueck, as well as writer/actor Darryn Lucio, special effects artist Randy Daudun, Van Der Beek and a few of the other cast members. This is really the best of the featurettes as the only other ones are a music video and a trailer (which I usually don’t count as an extra).

I was pleasantly surprised by "Final Draft" as it didn't fall into any of the categories that I expected it to. The fact that it turned out to be a fairly well written psychological thriller was definitely a plus. For a low budget feature, I've certainly seen a lot worse.

Directed by: Jonathan Dueck
Starring: James Van Der Beek, Darryn Lucio, Jeff Roop
Extras: Making of Final Draft, Music Video
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Genius Entertainment
Release Date: 9/25/2007
Region 1
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
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We'll give Final Draft a C.