The Final Sacrifice (1990)

Fleeing from the cult that murdered his father, a teen is aided in his quest to find the lost city of the fabled Ziox by a secretive drifter.

Director:

Tjardus Greidanus

Writer:

Tjardus Greidanus

Stars:

Christian Malcolm, Bruce J. Mitchell, Shane Marceau

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Malcolm	...	Troy McGreggor
Bruce J. Mitchell	...	Zap Rowsdower
Shane Marceau	...	Satoris
Ron Anderson	...	Mike Pipper
Bharbara Egan	...	Aunt Betty
Randy Vasseur	...	Thomas McGreggor, Troy's Father
Bryan C. Knight	...	Gas Attendant (as Bryan Knight)
Catherine O'Connel	...	Operator #1
Felice Wills	...	Radio Announcer
John Soldan	...	Cultist
Aus Greidanus	...	Cultist
Frank Paynter	...	Cultist
Dean Hinche	...	Cultist
Cris Wiseman	...	Cultist
Paul McKay	...	Cultist

Storyline

Ruled by the evil Satoris, an ancient cult of Canadian wrestlers, the Ziox, are bent on world domination. Instrumental to their plan is a map to the ancient Ziox cult idol, recently discovered by a young boy, Troy. When the Ziox invade his home to recover the map, he flees and ends up in the bed of a passing pickup truck, driven by Rowsdower. Rowsdower and Troy become friends, and together search for the lost idol before the Ziox can claim it and take over the world.

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Plot Keywords:

cult | wrestler | world domination | lost city | canuxploitation | 

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Taglines:

A lost city... A cult of unholy warriors... And a boy's quest for the secret of his father's death.

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Quest for the Lost City

Filming Locations:

Alberta, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Flying Dutchman Productions Ltd.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Due to the film's small budget and lack of mass distribution, none of the actors were paid for their roles.

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Goofs

In the ending credits, Bruce J. Mitchell is incorrectly credited as 'Troy' and Christian Malcolm is incorrectly credited as 'Rowsdower'. Christian Malcolm played the part of 'Troy' and Bruce J. Mitchell played the part of 'Rowsdower'.

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Quotes

Aunt Betty: You found that - Troy, you had no business there.
Troy McGreggor: My father is my business.
Aunt Betty: Oh Troy, I'm sorry. I only want you to forget him, to carry on with your own life.
Troy McGreggor: Am I like him?
Aunt Betty: Yes. You're very much like him.

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Connections

Featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Final Sacrifice (1998)

User Reviews

The Adventures of Beer and Nerd

As far as abysmally crappy movies go, The Final Sacrifice isn't so bad. Sure, it's technically inept in just about every way, features horrible dialogue, and doesn't have a character in the entire film with a realistic name (the fact that the director signs his checks "Tjardus Greidanus" goes a long way towards explaining this phenomena), but it's got something most films in its class lack: heart. I'd say Greidanus is akin to the famous Ed Wood, in that he shows not a shred of talent but at least seemed to believe in what he did. Rather than slapping a recycled costume on an assistant director and creating yet another lame, lousy creature feature with an insipid story, he tried to create something original, new, and interesting. He failed miserably, but at least he tried.

The plot revolves around a pre-Internet nerd named Troy, who, apparently, spends his time digging stuff out of the attic that relates to his father's death somehow, stares at it for a while, and then gives up on figuring out what happened and just puts it all away again. He lucks out when a ski-masked cult randomly decides to come looking for a map that leads to a lost city, even though they could have come any time in the seven years prior but for some reason decided to let him grow old enough to somehow thwart their entire incompetent organization with the help of a beer-guzzling, mullet-endowed drifter...but I get ahead of myself.

So anyway, Troy is forced to go outside the house for the first time in a decade and somehow winds up in the truck bed of the aforementioned drifter, who manages to deliver his name, Zap Rowsdower, with a straight face. Even the nerdy kid understands how embarrassing it is to call a grown man "Zap," so he (repeatedly) refers to him as "Rowsthdower," which isn't really much of an improvement. Anyhow, some other stuff happens, involving a gray-bearded, oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-people-like-this-actually-exist-type character named Mike Pipper, who explains some less-than-interesting exposition explaining what they're up against and what's at stake--the world, of course! After looking thoroughly unconcerned, our heroes, though they couldn't pool together enough mental resources to open a can of tuna (though Rowsdower has a lot of experience opening cans...of beer...), find a way to overthrow the muscleheaded cult, defeat the villainous Satoris (a man with a voice deeper than the lead singer of Type O Negative), knock over a pole, raise the lost cardboard miniature of Ziox, and save all of Canada, acting like it's some sort of major accomplishment all the while. The movie ends with an inspiring shot of Troy and Zap in the Zapmobile, going somewhere for some reason. My bet is that it involved beer and cheese.