Dir. Todd Strauss-Schulson (2015)
A young woman who is trying to grieve for her mother finds herself sucked into one of her films, where the two must face off against a slasher villain.
My mom died when I was 18 years old, the day before I started my second semester in college. I've struggled at times with really coping with this, my strong Irish heritage coming to the forefront and tamping down any emotions that I felt and causing me to go on a years-long period where I never really managed the feelings I had avoided for so long. It was during that period that I first saw The Final Girls, a film that is totally up my alley... and yet one that I absolutely did not like on first viewing. Now that I've identified why I struggled with it the first time, I decided to give it another shot on the advice of some close friends, and I am now more than ready to admit that I was totally wrong the first time around.
Max (Taissa Farmiga) lost her mother Amanda (Malin Akerman), a struggling actor, three years ago. Her mom was in a cult slasher film called Camp Bloodbath 2 and was never able to overcome the typecast, and when Max is invited by her friend Duncan (Thomas Middleditch) to a showing of the film for the fans, Max agrees with a bit of academic encouragement. Unfortunately, an accident burns the theater down, magically transporting Max, Duncan, and their friends Vicki (Nina Dobrev), Chris (Alexander Ludwig), and Gertie (Alia Shawkat) inside the movie itself. Faced with trying to survive, as well as the emotions of seeing her mother again, Max and friends must play with the rules of slasher films in order to live through the rest of the film.
This is what you get for listening to Bette Davis Eyes. The Final Girls is brilliant meta horror, hammering the comedy with an excellent script and great performances from the cast, including Adam Devine (not the Maroon 5 guy, it turns out) as one of the camp counselors. It's also hugely emotional, and it's easy to see why this struck a nerve with me the last time I tried to watch it. It's funny, endearing, completely heartwarming, and also a damn fine slasher film to boot. It's tongue-in-cheek and really gets at the core of what we all love about slasher films, playing with tropes and themes that have come to embody the genre for years now.
I've never been the biggest fan of Taissa Farmiga, and she's one of the main reasons why American Horror Story never really connected with me. That said, she's excellent in this film, delivering exactly the type of emotional performance necessary to connect her story to the audience. I am, however, a huge fan of Akerman, and she is likewise fantastic as the mother/slasher movie fodder at the heart of the story. Daniel Norris, who has done stuntwork in several of the larger Marvel Universe films, plays the grown-up slasher Billy Murphy, a great take on the hulking Jason Voorhees character made famous by Kane Hodder's ambling slasher icon.
Director Todd Strauss-Schulson does a phenomenal job telling this story, utilizing all kinds of movie magic camera tricks, like flashbacks and text overlays, in super creative ways to impact his characters. Writers M. A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller have crafted an excellent script filled with hilarious one-liners, ultra-meta references, and a touching and sentimental storyline that will melt even the hardest gorehound heart. I knew I had to give it a shot again, because there's just no way that this one shouldn't have connected with me the first time. Thankfully, I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more this time around, and it's one of the better horror comedies in recent memory.
Who this movie is for: Slasher movie fans, Horror comedy lovers, Failed actors
Bottom line: I'm definitely glad I gave The Final Girls another look, because I liked it a hell of a lot more this time around. It's funny, heartwarming, and an excellent meta slasher with a lot for horror fans to love. Akerman and Farmiga are fantastic as the mother-daughter at the center of the story, and there are a lot of fantastic supporting performances from the rest of the cast as well. This is a good one, and it's finally streaming on Peacock for those who have wanted to watch.
