‘The Final Girls’ Review // A slasher film parody

“Kum ba noooooo“

The Final Girls

Release Date: October 9, 2015

Directed by: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Screeplay: M.A. Fortin, Joshua John Miller
Starring: Taissa Farmiga, Malin Ackerman, Adam DeVine, Nina Dobrev, Alexander Ludwig, Alia Shawkat, Chloe Bridget
Rating: PG-13

A not-so-scary horror comedy with a bit of emotion and a lot of horror clichés…but I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.

‘The Final Girls’ focuses around Max Cartwright (Farmiga), whose mother recently died in a car accident. Her mother was an aspiring actress that was mostly known for her role in an 80’s slasher film, Camp Bloodshed. On the anniversary of her mother’s death, a cult-movie club holds a special event in a theater showing Camp Bloodshed. When an accident occurs at the theater, Max finds herself stuck inside the movie itself. Along with some of her friends, she must survive and try to find a way out.

This movie within a movie is just like any cheesy horror film, complete with all the cliché characters: the vulgar jock (DeVine), the promiscuous camp counselor, the virgin, even the murderer is badly deformed due to some bullying in his past and now he’s out for revenge. And who are the only ones to die? The people who show their boobs or have sex.

There’s humor in just about every scene but the movie still tries to bring some depth to the story line with Max. Not only does she have to survive through the plot-line of the movie, her mother is there as well… but not as her mother, as the character she plays in Camp Bloodbath. You see her struggle with seeing her mother again and that, inevitably, she will have to leave her. This isn’t over done though, with the exception of one scene that could have been shaved down a bit. It’s an easy integration into the over-the-top dialogue and horror clichés.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this movie is the cinematography. Not only does this movie-within-a-movie integrate all the characters and dialogue we love about cheesy slasher films, it also uses the camera techniques as well. There’s purposeful slow-motion in which the characters actually are running slowly, there are flashbacks that cause everyone to see in black and white and even credits that the characters can see rolling through the sky. These techniques, including others, add so much to the enjoyment of the movie – its humorous and contributes to the characters’ realization that they are in the movie.

Overall, this movie is a must-see for fans of the horror-comedy genre. It’s over-the-top and has all the stereotypical characters you love. I didn’t know what to expect going into this movie (but I didn’t have high expectations) and while this movie didn’t blow me away or cause me to cry from laughing so hard, I was definitely pleasantly surprised.