I think a lot of the bad reviews here were written by people expecting a straight horror flick. I know their rebuttal will be that they were expecting a 'good movie' but to each his own. This is more of a psychological drama. There is a palpable state of tension throughout as we really don't know where the the main character's hallucinations are going to take him. It kept me watching so I gave it a higher mark than most.

Jonathan Dueck's 'Final Draft' doesn't show us much what we haven't already seen before. The director tries to make it mysterious, suspenseful and ambiguous but not much happens until the last half hour. Darryn Lucio writes and costars. While the premise is interesting, the pacing is at fault. It takes almost an entire hour for the story to take off. 'Final Draft' seems to take much of its inspiration from Stephen King's 'It' and 'Secret Window'. Even though it's made within a small budget, it' quite well-made and the visuals in the last half hour are quite well done. The dark and gloomy atmosphere is The characterization was quite clichéd and that makes the situations less interesting. James Van Der Beek turns in a decent performance as the tormented writer suffering from writer's block and fighting his past but the rest of the cast is uninteresting. So, there is nothing refreshing about 'Final Draft'. It's painfully slow, clichéd and tries too hard while failing.

If you've watched any number of horror/suspense/thriller movies and have an IQ above 4, you will be able to predict the end of this poorly-written, cliché-ridden, moth-bitten rehash of "tortured writer" stories within the first 10 minutes. Poorly-sketched characters and non-sequitur scenes (adult bully punching teenager, baseball through window) to pad out to 90 minutes do not a good movie make.Traumatic childhood clown experience - check.Embarrassed publicly by high school bully - check.Dead sibling you feel guilty about - check.Failed marriage - check.Protagonist's fate - take a guess...Last (and possibly least):Cliché "surprize" epilogue/"fade to black" scene - check.This movie was obviously done on a shoestring budget, but they could have invested *some* part of that budget on a script.The worst thing a "thriller" can be is boring. I only kept watching this snooze-fest because I thought: "This HAS to get better." To err is human...I'd only recommend this movie to insomniacs who don't have access to a warm glass of milk.

For anyone who's about to watch this, keep in mind that it's a low-budget indie-film. Don't expect spectacular locations, spectacular plot twists or spectacular acting. The movie moves forward pretty slow and it takes a long time before anything actually happens. I also have a problem with the dialog, which lacks a lot of subtlety. What's wrong with letting the viewers figure out for themselves what's meant by certain lines...Still, the film was enjoyable and I have no problem recommending it to friends. Seeing how there are so few decent horror films out there, this deserves some credit. I felt a bit let down by the last half hour, but that part of the movie does score well on unpredictability.To sum it up: a decent psychological horror movie with okay performances and some intense scenes. Worth the watch if you don't mind a slow pace.6/10