Slasher Saturday: The Final Girls
Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman deal with grief and letting go while dodging a machete in The Final Girls.
Prepare to tear up every time you hear “Bette Davis Eyes”.
What’s The Final Girls About?
Max (Taissa Farmiga) loses her actress mother Amanda (Malin Åkerman) in a car crash, she’s got nothing left but the movies. Amanda’s most famous film is Camp Bloodbath, which became a cult classic, much to Amanda’s chagrin.
On the anniversary of her loss, Max is convinced to go to a Camp Bloodbath screening with her friends. After a fire breaks out in the theater, Max leads them to safety by slashing the screen and jumping through it…only to find herself in the midst of the movie they were just watching.
Max and her friends decide to play along with the movie while they look for a way out, but those plans change when Max runs into her mother’s character. If Max saves her mom in the movie, can she bring her back to the real world?
What Makes The Final Girls Good?
The Final Girls has something rare in horror — a tender heart. At the center of this funny slasher parody is a story about loss and coming to terms with grief. Max is so lost without her mother that she clings to her mother’s most famous character in her grief. But this extra time spent with the woman she misses enables her to let go, and ultimately move on. It’s a surprisingly touching plotline for a movie that makes a joke out of a decapitation via bear trap.
And there’s plenty of wry comedy and fun to keep The Final Girls from becoming an emotionally draining slog. Director Todd Strauss-Schulson plays with the conventions of the horror film and the film literacy of Max and her friends. When the killer gets too close, they yell for a flashback, telling a story that immediately throws them into a black-and-white world. They dodge text that shows up to set up time and place. Once the film is successfully completed, credits roll in the sky.
Strauss-Schulson isn’t afraid to take big swings for emotions. There are a couple of bloody kills that are played for laughs. The biggest emotional moment is a striptease set to “Bette Davis Eyes”. And while the director’s toying with genre conventions tamps down on some of the scares, the movie is ultimately a sweet tribute to slasher films as well as a meditation on loss.
Verdict
If you’re a fan of slasher movies, but also love a good sappy cry, this is going to be the perfect watch for you.
The Final Girls is rated PG-13 and is available to rent/buy via Prime or for free with ads on YouTube.
