I’ll tell you straight up front: The Final Girls isn’t going to deliver what you’d expect.
Based on the advanced marketing material and trailer, I expected a low budget horror-comedy hybrid, something that’s as brutally funny as it is brutal. But what is actually delivered is something significantly deeper and more emotional than anticipated. And that’s absolutely fine. While the film is moderately clever and, in spots, often very funny, The Final Girls is ultimately a bit of a wet blanket. Who wants feelings mixed in with their scares and gore?
The film introduces actress Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman) as a former slasher film star whose most famous film, the camp classic Camp Bloodbath, has typecast her in a scream queen vein. When Amanda dies in a car accident with her daughter Max (Taissa Farmiga), Max is invited to a special screening of the Camp Bloodbath films on the third anniversary of her mother’s death. After a fire breaks out in the theater, Max attempts to lead a group of friends to safety by using a machete to hack through the movie screen but opens a portal into the film itself. There, Max and crew engage with characters from the film, including the one played by her mother, as they sex it up and die. When the “final girl” – the remaining virgin girl who cuts off the killer’s head and ends the film – dies in a freak accident caused by their meddling with the events of the film, the survivors must figure out how to recreate the role of the “final girl” and end the film to return to real life.
My main gripe with the film is that it simply isn’t scary. Yes, there were a few jump scenes, but the problem with a “meta” horror film is that the characters are aware they’re in a horror film so they’re constantly undercutting the tension with snide comments and sarcastic banter. Wes Craven’s Scream danced in this territory but balanced the comedy with the horror in a much more successful way. The film was funny and referenced other horror films with a knowing wink, but it was also at its core a horror film. The Final Girls isn’t a horror film, ultimately, and the sooner you realize that the more likely you are to appreciate its good qualities.
As a comedy, it is fairly funny, particularly with the hyperactive comic performance of Silicon Valley‘s Thomas Middleditch as Duncan, an awkward horror obsessive who knows the rules of the genre and directs their actions. Middleditch gives a vibrant comic performance here that has a toe in the same geeky realm as his Silicon Valley character but is much more open and confident. He is the one actor who really seems to be having fun with the role aside from Adam DeVine (Modern Family, Workaholics) who does his usual routine as the sexed-up jock.
The main performances from Farmiga and Akerman are very strong, hitting emotionally resonant notes that you wouldn’t expect from the genre. A severely underrated actress, Akerman, in particular, succeeds in giving the stock slasher film character some nice nuance, particularly when she discovers that she’s a character in a horror film and is designed to die. The scenes between the two actresses are well written and, again, highly emotional, but they ultimately feel out of place within the horror-comedy genre. Max’s experience within the film teaches her to “let go” of her mother, a bit of a hackneyed conclusion in my opinion, and the message often threatens to sap the fun out of the film. Again, the sooner the audience realizes the true heart of the film lies within Max’s journey of accepting her mother’s death then the more likely people are to appreciate the merits of the film.
Finally, I do have to comment on the look and feel of the film-within-a-film sequences. The design of the camp is beautiful with its surrounding woods populated with impossibly beautiful and photogenic flowers, gorgeous lighting, and accomplished cinematography. The main cabin and nearby locales are so exactingly art directed that they appear to have stepped out of a Wes Anderson film. And it all makes for a surprisingly lush presentation, but isn’t that a bit of a cheat? If Camp Bloodbath is to echo the slasher films of the 1980s, then the set design needs to be toned down to reflect the low-budget roots of the genre. The camp here is way too sophisticated and cinematic to effectively recall its predecessors.
The Final Girls is now available on iTunes.
