FilmSnobReviews

Title: The Final Girls
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Starring: Taissa Farmiga, Malin Akerman, Alexander Ludwig
Runtime: 1 hr 28 mins

What It Is: When Max Cartwright’s (Farmiga) mother dies in a car accident she is distraught. Max’s mother was an actress and her magnum opus was an 80’s slasher flick called Camp Bloodbath. During a screening on the anniversary of her death Max gets accidentally sucked into the world of the film. Now her mother’s character Nancy (Akerman) as well as the others at the camp are in trouble thanks to machete wielding Billy Murphy. It may be up to Max or one of the other gals to be the final girl and take out Billy with his own machete.

What We Think: This is a great homage to the slasher film. Where a film like Scream held it’s tongue firmly in cheek this sticks it right on out like Miley Cyrus. It dares you to challenge it’s meta. There’s some great performances, especially from Farmiga whose coming into her own in the horror genre. Nina Dobrev is cast as the bitchy mean girl and that casting seems inspired, and it works. There’s a series a silly kills and those too are great. It’s well-written fun that plays up a lack of seriousness.

Our Grade: B+, I’m going to go ahead and recommend this film. Not just 80’s slasher fans but also anyone who’d enjoy the meta nature of such a satire. Anyone unfamiliar with the term “final girl” will quickly learn what it means and it’s importance to the genre that is the slasher. Director Strauss-Schulson only has one other credit that I could see and it’s A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas which was also very very funny. I look forward to whatever he decides to do next.