Tragedy Girls

It is film festival time once again so it is a great chance to check out smaller films like this on the big screen. This one is a twist on the slasher genre following two horror obsessed teenage girls who use their online blog about real-life murders to manipulate their way into the spotlight. It breathes life into the slasher genre and is also a great take on the dark side of social media. It has some inventive camera work that makes the most of its modest budget backed up with good performances all around.

I feel a shades of Heathers (1988) and it certainly has a few nods to some classic slasher films. It is not the first film in recent years to put a new twist on slasher films with good results... The Final Girls (2015) and You're Next (2011) come to mind but I think this one is better than those and is sure to become a cult favourite in years to come.

7/10

I had minimal expectations going into "Tragedy Girls" because, even though a massive fan of slashers and 80s horror cinema in general, I don't feel like I'm part of the target group for this kind of films. Horror comedies, and particularly self-declared "homages" or "throwbacks", are rarely as clever as the writer/director thinks they are. Moreover, yours truly is a 36-year-old male with very few interest in social media (Twitter, Snapchat and whatnot) and I most certainly cannot connect with the life-world of popular teenage girls. Still, there was something irresistibly appealing about the premise of "Tragedy Girls", so I went into the theater with an open mindset and must admit I don't have any regrets. BFF's Sadie and McKayla have two main purposes in life: killing many people and having the world's largest number of Twitter-followers; - the second being even more crucial than the first. They kidnap and cage a beginning serial killer, but cheerfully continue the murder spree themselves whilst actively reporting on social media and incriminating the allegedly at large killer. The girls choose their next victims based on whoever steals their media attention, and meanwhile they also have a school prom to prepare!

I'm not quite sure if director Tyler MacIntyre is spoofing or accurately depicting the trending phenomenon of social media. Teenagers nowadays really are obsessed with their smartphones and do the craziest things to earn their spot on the internet. I don't see any dumb kids capable of murdering other human beings, but admittedly it's a good baseline for a horror comedy. In many other reviews I read that many viewers find all the lead characters, especially the two girls, hopelessly irritating and implausible, but I hardly think you can blame the script. Teens that send texts with hearts to each other while they're in the same classroom are irritating by default. The only character that I personally found truly annoying was Kevin Durand's serial killer Lowell (according to the credits that's his name, although I'm sure they call him Lehmann instead). He's the least competent killer in history and gets his butt whooped by a couple of teen drama queens no less than three times. "Tragedy Girls" is not an excessively gory film, but a handful of death scenes are both gruesome and utmost ingenious. Notably memorable moments include the combination of a poor girl's head and a buzz saw, Craig Robinson versus a dumbbell and a subtly genius "Cannibal Holocaust" tribute. This latter sequence probably won't get noticed by the youngest genre fanatics, but it does prove that MacIntyre knows his classics. His directing skills are more adequate, by the way. Add to this a pleasingly grim (albeit foreseeable) finale, and the overall end result is that "Tragedy Girls" is one of the more satisfying genre efforts of the 2010's.

PS: just in case you're wondering, this user comment's title is inspired by lyrics that are courtesy of The Bee Gees. Who?

"Tragedy Girls" is an odd and unpleasant movie. The characters are too repulsive to care about, but you could at least laugh at them, but the movie doesn't seem to want us to do that. Are we supposed to be impressed by them? Regard them as heroes? Hope for their downfall? What?

The violence in the movie is so ridiculous and over-the-top that it definitely seems to fit the mould of a horror comedy. But there's no other comedy in it. The plot would have been an almost ideal set-up for a satire of today's social media obsessed youth, but the movie avoids any and all opportunities for social commentary.

It keeps you at arm's length from its characters - which will probably be okay with you, honestly - but then at the end seems to expect you to care for them. I didn't.

The ending would be quite bleak in a movie with a social conscience, but this movie has none, so it's more confusing than anything.

The plot: two teenage girls have a blog called "Tragedy Girls" in which they report on local tragedies and are dying for likes - as are, apparently, the people they write about. At the film's beginning, they set-up a poor (?) ugly teenage boy to meet his demise at the hands of a local slasher, and inexplicably take the slasher hostage. Apparently they have an empty warehouse somewhere all to themselves where they can detain serial killers and cut up bodies and nobody knows about it. They don't get many more likes from these escapades so they start killing people themselves.

That is basically it. Aside from a few creative death scenes - which, admittedly, use the horror-comedy trope of bodies being about as fragile as wax figurines - there's nothing else in the movie, really. This is one of few films where the plot description on IMDB tells you everything that happens in the whole movie.

Because it's a movie about two friends, of course there's an unnecessary diversion where they have a falling out and then make up, but that's about it.

The movie, ultimately, left a bad taste in my mouth. A topic like this cries out for comedy, insight, satire, anything. I think the filmmakers just had no idea how to handle it; it's a social commentary story forced into a horror-comedy film.

Sometimes a movie seems to be too clever for its own good. That doesn't mean you can't have fun with this. No matter how you watch and no matter how you feel about the girls themself. It is supposed to be funny and not animate imitators. Which wouldn't work anyway, because in real life the charade would be over in no time.

But this is also supposed to be a sort of stab at current society and celebrity status and the obsession of some with it. Actually it tries to juggle and play with too many subjects while trying to be as funny as possible. Not everything works out, but it's silly attitude can make things feel lighter than they actually are. So you can enjoy this and a one time viewing is sufficient ... maybe if you are in the right mind set, you will even enjoy this more than others did. Whatever the case, don't expect too much, put morality aside and you'll have a good time

This is a quirky light hearted take on the slasher genre and follows two self obsessed psycopaths who are 2 girls still in high school. They are superficial and spend time on their phones fishing for likes and attention while also commiting many murders within the high school community.

It was quite refreshing and the 2 leads did a good job of playing annoyingly self obsessed teens. The rest of the cast do a good job as well and its well made all round including the gruesome deaths !!

Don't expect anything more than a slasher flick with a difference and enjoy it for what it is #betterthanmostslasherfilms