YMMV / The Final

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Ravi appears to be the Token Good Teammate of the outcasts. Namely, he frees Kurtis after not wanting him to witness the torture. Would he have taken pity on Bridget later, too, after she apologised? Or would he have allowed Emily to mutilate and disfigure her? He's killed before he can do anything else, so the whole thing is up for debate.
• Anvilicious: The anti-bullying anvil is anything but subtle. While it's a lesson that should be taught, it also ends up arguing that actual Cold-Blooded Torture is apparently a justified and proportionate response to said bullying.
• Catharsis Factor: Heather is quite possibly the least sympathetic of the bullies - as she is the leader of the Girl Posse, openly antagonises Emily and is happily helping Tommy cheat on Nadia. It's very satisfying when Dane reveals this to everyone. As it is when she gets the compound smeared on her face to destroy her beauty - given that Bridget later redeems herself and Kelli is shown in a sympathetic light. It's similarly satisfying when Bernard is stuck full of needles and Bradley is left paralyzed.
• Creepy Cute: Emily is an Emotionless Girl who tells people to mutilate each other like she's talking about the weather, yet once she's in her party costume she's very appealing looking.
• Critical Dissonance: It has a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but has been more favourably received by audiences.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Bridget, the member of the Girl Posse who apologises for her actions and ultimately refuses to mutilate Bradley to save herself. Whitney Hoy was noted to be one of the stand-outs of the cast.
  • The character of Nice Guy Kurtis is well-liked, although his Trapped by Mountain Lions subplot is more divisive.
• Fanon: It's believed that when Emily is on the phone to Ravi watching something on TV, it's the movie Audition she's watching - as the needle stunt she does later is a clear Shout-Out to it.
• Fanon Discontinuity: What Bridget suffers in the ending inspires this for some, given how it feels excessive and Heather had already been subjected to the flesh eating compound.
• Fridge Brilliance: Emily wears her hair in pigtails for her costume, as do Heather and Bridget. A subtle clue showing that even though she was tormenting them, she did still crave their approval.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Bernard mocks Ravi by doing an impression of Apu from The Simpsons. Several years later, we'd get the documentary The Problem With Apu - detailing just how much Indian-Americans have had to deal with thanks to racial stereotyping with the character.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Whilst this is undoubtedly a horror movie. It is kind of funny that, Lindsay Seidel would graduate from trying to torture her classmates to trying kill her teacher. However, it should be noted that while this movie and Assassination Classroom both deal with killer teenagers the circumstances surrounding why, as well as the tone of the anime/manga are both vastly different. Siedel would also go on to play Celestia Ludenburg so killing classmates became something of a common thing for her.
  • The plot is also reminiscent of 13 Reasons Why - which deals with a bully victim getting revenge on her tormentors. The book it was based on was also released just a couple of years before the film came out.
  • A minor plot point is that Emily's parents don't pay too much attention to her. This is amusing when you watch the Behind the Scenes feature - where Lindsay Seidel's father is on set for the needle scene.
• Hollywood Homely: Lindsay Seidel is dressed down as Emily, making her look like an emo. But even under that she's still a very pretty girl. As shown when She Cleans Up Nicely for her party costume.
• Jerkass Woobie: A lot of people admit to feeling sorry for Kelli - who is less sympathetic than Bridget, but not as bad as Heather, and in her final scene is shown pouring loads of pills onto her hand.
• Karmic Overkill: Bridget gets two of her fingers cut off and half her face disfigured because she apologised to Emily but refused to torture Bradley.
• Mandela Effect: Although often remembered as a Hostel level Torture Porn flick, the film is actually quite blood free. Emily sticking Bernard full of needles a la Audition has minimal blood, and even the after effects of Heather and Bridget's disfigurements are only shown briefly.
• Moment of Awesome: Bridget turning down the offer of safety, which required her to torture someone else in order to get it. Too bad the person she refused to torture didn't return the favor.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • So much of this movie could be considered crossing this particular line, but in particular, Bradley accepting the offer to torture Bridget in exchange for his own safety, right after Bridget was offered safety in exchange for torturing him and outright refused to do so.
  • Emily crosses it by making Bridget do the above after she apologised. And when Bridget still won't go through with that, Emily smears the compound on her face as a further Kick the Dog moment.
  • Dane crosses it pretty early on, murdering Ravi in cold blood when Ravi allows Kurtis, the one person in the group who was truly their friend, to go free.
• Retroactive Recognition: Lindsay Seidel, who plays Emily, will later go on to have a modest voice acting career with Funimation.
• Rewatch Bonus: Watch the milk-throwing scene in the cafeteria. Notably, Bridget has an uncomfortable look on her face, foreshadowing that she will apologise and attempt to make amends.
• Ron the Death Eater: Some viewers will try to pick a side, exclusively either with the bullies or the outcasts. It's a Gray-and-Gray Morality, with only the likes of Kurtis and possibly Bridget and Ravi being close to heroic.
• Tear Jerker: Before letting Jack shoot her, Emily says to Kelli that she really wished they could have been friends.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: Kurtis spending most of the movie strapped to some redneck's chair — for no reason other than to prevent him going Big Damn Heroes on the party sooner.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The protagonists soon turn out to be Villain Protagonists who plan to torture several of their classmates while the rest are Forced to Watch. The majority are Asshole Victims but one of the bullies apologises and tries to make amends...only to get punished worse than her peers. What's more is that the most sympathetic of the torturers is killed off for freeing Kurtis. And of course the movie ends with a news reporter missing the whole point of the plan, meaning nothing was accomplished.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The movie is recognisable as a late 2000s piece for several reasons: Emily is a typical late 2000s emo, and is mocked for it by the Girl Posse. Jack, Bernard and Ravi all have haircuts heavily associated with late 2000s fashion. The bullies are invited to the party with a flyer - rather than an event invite on Facebook^note While the outcasts would be trying to hide the location of the party, there would still be a Hand Wave explaining why they don't use social media to do it. - and social media is never mentioned otherwise. The cellphones used also mark the movie as being made before smartphones, as is the scene that shows the outcasts setting up webcams (which could be done with smartphones these days). The lax attitude towards bullying is also reminiscent of the era.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: All of the outcasts. The movie tries very hard to paint them as righteous or justified for inflicting torture. One possible exception is Ravi, as while he took apart of the scheme, he also didn't want innocent lives to be affected, to the point where he gave up his life to free Kurtis and inadvertently end the entire nightmare.
• The Woobie:
  • Ravi has to deal with racial abuse, and the bullies destroying his property (that camera isn't likely inexpensive either) not to mention he dies senselessly for helping a friend.
  • Bridget has become this by the end. She was the only bully to feel remorse, and she got two fingers cut off and half her face disfigured for her troubles.

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