Review of The Final Girls (2015) by Andy W — 02 Nov 2015

The Final Girls is a truly unique, strange little gem, a meta genre commentary/satire about the slasher movie in the vein of Cabin In The Woods or Scream, but with a whole other layer to it that is genuinely disarming and sweetly surprising.

It begins with main character Max's movie actress mother dying in a tragedy, and then fast forwards a year later to Max and her friends attending an anniversary screening of her mothers only big film, fictional 80's slice and dicer "Camp Blood Bath", the cinema burns down and the characters end up transported into the movie "Last Action Hero" style, there they have to follow the movies unwritten cliches to survive to the climax and Max is reunited with a living movie version of her young mother.

There are some issues with this film here and there for me, it soft peddles any actual horror in favor of comedy to the point where I wonder at some points if it even really counts as an honest to god horror/comedy flick, and there is no gore and very, very little blood, I think if the movie had gone all the way with the kills and nastiness of the movies it satirizes, it would have been an outright giddy classic, but luckily so much works so well that it's still great.

What really makes this movie something special and truly unusual is the sad, bittersweet mother/daughter relationship at the center, it adds something never seen in a film of this type before, a genuinely moving emotional through-line, Trust me, you'll never hear "Bette Davis Eyes" the same way again.

A lovely, fun, inventive and hilarious future cult favorite that takes the meta horror flick from a new angle, as much a Wizard Of Oz esc fairy tale and weepy drama as a comedic, spoofy horror, and it's also got a great cast giving layered, often hilarious performances, a brilliantly sharp script and both gorgeous and Raimi esc inventive camera work.