Scream Girl

This film has one hell of a premise that immediately grabbed my attention. It features the exact blend of comedy and horror that I love and that so rarely filmmakers do right. The severely underrated Club Dread is a perfect example of how so many people can miss the intended humour. Then you have hits like Tucker & Dale vs Evil, which not only is a great premise, but is also both hilarious and a bloody good time. People either seem to love or hate these films and it's most likely because it's so hard to balance the two genres. When done right, it's gold, when done wrong, it's terrible.

The Final Girls, for the most part, lands on the good side of the spectrum. Max, loses her mother in a car accident and 3 years to the day, is invited to a screening of her late mother's most famous film, a cheesy 80's horror flick called Camp Blood. During the screening the theatre catches fire, so Max and her friends have to escape and cut right through the theatre screen. Next thing they know, they're in the movie. The exact same movie her mother appears in, which now gives Max a second opportunity to be with her mother, only if she survives the deranged killer roaming the woods.

The film has a great opportunity to capitalize on a lot of horror clichés, much like the way The Cabin in the Woods did brilliantly. One character in particular, a Randy Meeks of horror films, is the perfect opportunity to connect the film characters with the viewer at home. What would Randy do if he were literally transported into the film Scream? This was an interesting approach that I hoped the filmmakers would take. They don't. They kind of walk the line, but they are pretty inconsistent with things.

Being in the horror film and knowing how it ends is perfect fodder for comedy gold. The film did make me laugh, many times, but I wanted to laughs to be really enjoyable. Instead I chuckled a lot throughout the film. Instead of being a comedy, the film has a surprising amount of drama thrown in. Max has an opportunity to reunite with her mother, only the person in the movie isn't her mother, she's the character her mother plays in the film. Again, great set ups for comedy gold, yet we get mild humour. I little disappointing on that end, but still enough comedy in the film to make me smile.

The filmmakers throw some interesting aspects of the genre at the viewers and the characters. The characters can actually hear the "ch ch ch cha cha cha" that accompanies a nearby victim or a flashback that transports the character even further back in time. Title cards that they can interact with, a specific time line of events to unfold. Every 92 minutes, things start over again because that is the length of the film. These things are clever and make for a unique viewing experience.

One of the biggest problems with the film is that it doesn't go far enough with the material. It's held back by the rating. The film features very little gore and no nudity. These things are staples of the horror genre, especially the 80's slasher films that the film is parodying. If the film has embraced these things and given us an R rated comedy, then it would have been a lot better. It felt restrained in a sense.

Not a wasted opportunity, not at all. The film is good and those who enjoy these types of movies will surely have a good time. I just think the possibilities could have been so much more. They had a great idea and didn't try and take it any further beyond that. This film easily, could have been one of my favourites of the year, instead it settles for being just a good movie.

If you ever sat down and thought to yourself, Pleasantville as a horror film would be brilliant. This film is for you.

I am fresh off of watching this and wow, this was a lot of fun. I was afraid that this was going to turn out like every other recent film with a young cast and be riddled with MTV type clichés but it wasn't at all. The cast was great and film as a whole was pretty funny and brutal (for a PG-13 Film).

The premise was great and original, they really came up with a clever way to spoof the 80's slasher genre. The sub plot was even well done and made for some fairly emotional scenes. The film worked on all levels and was blast to watch. I really enjoyed it

It's weird but when I really like a film I find it hard to say a whole lot about it. When I hate a film I can shoot out four or five paragraphs no problem, but I enjoyed this film so much that I am finding it hard to come up with much to say. Just watch it.

8/10

I was looking for an entertaining film to watch on Halloween, and I sure wasn't disappointed with THE FINAL GIRLS. The basic premise is that a group of friends at a horror marathon end up getting trapped in the movie itself and have to find a way to survive. Brilliant, right? Arguably the best part of the movie is the way that it makes fun of horror clichés, particularly those in the slasher genre. They also poke fun at the horrible writing and bad acting. Basically, it does for slasher films what CABIN IN THE WOODS did for "cabin in the woods"/Evil Dead-type films. The acting, even though some of it was intentionally bad, was decent. There weren't too many well-known actors, so nobody really stood out in that respect. I did recognize Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman, and for what it's worth, they did well. However, my favorite character was the dumb blonde. She provided the most laughs for me. Adam Devine was OK, but it reminded me too much of his work in PITCH PERFECT. From a technical standpoint, everything was rather solid. Camera-work was good, and I thought they did a good job toning down R-rated violence for a PG-13. They even get a good joke out of using black-and-white for a flashback sequence. All things considered, THE FINAL GIRLS was a clever genre sendup that makes mostly good use out of the material its parodying. To sweeten it further, there were a couple of scenes that seemed stolen from my dreams, as Taissa Farmiga's character and I have something in common that I won't spoil for those who haven't seen the film. Let's just say there was one part that got me a little emotional. The only thing that keeps me from going higher with the rating is that the film kind of backs off from a "your destiny is up to you" message and falls back on the clichés it had been making fun of up to that point. Other than that, I thought it was an easy watch with plenty of laughs that should entertain most viewers who are into horror movies.

When you have such a fascinating premise it is rather hard not to get interested and excited, but often times the execution of said premise proves to be abysmal and therefore ruin what could have been a fantastic opportunity. While I don't feel that's the case for The Final Girls, the effort is not met without flaws. The mixture of horror and comedy is an extremely difficult blend to successfully pull it off, and to not fall into a place of "is funny because of how bad it is" which tons of films have sadly come down to. The good thing about the Final Girls is how cleverly it tackles that notion by primarily being a satire, a spoof on 80s horror clichés, most notably those coming from the slasher subgenre.

The main characters find themselves in a movie theater where there is a homage to a very popular 80s horror flick, called Camp Bloodbath, which stars Max's (Taissa Farmiga) late mother (Malin Akerman), who was an actress mainly known for her role in that film. Having passed only three years since a car accident that tragically took her mom's life, Max is conflicted about watching her deceased mother in a film where she gets killed by a masked maniac. The emotional element is present to provide a bigger depth to the story, which works quite well in my opinion. After a weird incident in the movie theater, a fire starts spreading and amidst the chaos, she grabs a machete and opens her and her friends' way through the movie screen, and that is how they get sucked into the Camp Bloodbath film. Having in their group a guy who is a huge fan of the movie proves to be really helpful as he knows what needs to be done to get out of the film's universe.

The Final Girls manages to poke fun and pay homage at the same time, and does it with an adequate level of silliness, it doesn't feel over-the-top by any means. It's a well-balanced tone that makes this film all-around enjoyable although I believe that the PG-13 rating did hurt it quite a bit, if it had been rated R, it could have been explosive, so that's the only thing that's lacking in my opinion.

I highly recommend it, you'll definitely have fun!

Let's star in a horror movie. A PG-13 horror movie that is based on slasher films. Well if that sounds a bit toothless, I can assure you that many will look upon it that way. There's almost no blood on display (except for one scene) and there are also other "major" ingredients missing. The original plan was to make it an R-rated movie, which did not happen obviously. There are quite a few fun bits of trivia like that in the audio commentary (though according to them only 14 year olds listen to them - another joke in case that wasn't clear).

Now up until now that may all have sounded quite harsh, which was not my intention. The movie is good fun, but I wanted to make sure people know what they get themselves into (no pun intended). A CGI crash early on in the movie is quite well done and nice to watch. As are the characters, that are a bit of a parody of whatever went on in the 80s. The actors have a lot of fun and it shows. Still there are too many conveniences and coincidences, an ending that tries to be clever and other things you'll either like or be annoyed by. Try to watch it without thinking too much and you'll have a good time - do not compare it with things like Cabin in the Woods though