“I Can’t Believe We’re Just Gonna Casually Watch Someone Get Murdered. What Is This, Detroit?” – Vicki Summers

An affectionate nod and occasional parody of 1980s slashers and their associated tropes, The Final Girls, released in 2015, may not be as inspired or as tonally consistent as the similarly self-mocking likes of The Cabin in the Woods (2011), Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) or the iconic 1996 slasher; Scream. But, with plenty of humorous moments, some stellar visuals, and a surprisingly strong layer of emotion tying together all of the film’s meta amusement, The Final Girls is sure to delight any admirer of the gruesome subgenre, even if the film focuses far more effort towards being a comedy than a nostalgic horror.

Plot Summary: When Max Cartwright and her friends reluctantly attend a tribute screening of the notorious 1980s slasher Camp Bloodbath, a film that starred Max’s late mother, the group are transported into the cult horror flick. Now reunited with an on-screen version of her mother, Max and her friends must join forces with the ill-fated camp counsellors to confront the film’s machete-wielding killer and survive the ninety-two-minute runtime…

Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson (Drunks vs. Highs, Zombies and Cheerleaders, Isn’t It Romantic) and co-written by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller, The Final Girls does a fantastic job of capturing all the aspects of ’80s slashers in a way that highlights the hilarity of their predictability, whilst still respecting the subgenre, from one character losing her virginity and thus, instantly condemning herself to a violent death, to each of the camp counsellors fitting into one of several slasher stereotypes, e.g. the Jock and the Harlot, etc. The screenplay gets plenty of mileage out of playing with the clichés we all know from the slasher flicks of old. Still, it’s undeniable that the influence for The Final Girls is the Friday the 13th series, as the films share many, many similarities in everything from structure to sound design.

The cast for The Final Girls is extensive, as the screenplay balances the characters from the real world and the over-the-top personalities from Camp Bloodbath, who are intentionally written as walking clichés, with the film placing most of its attention toward developing Max and her mother, Amanda, portrayed by Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman, respectively. And, their relationship is where the majority of the story’s poignant scenes come from, as after losing her mother in a tragic car crash three years earlier, Max finally sees her chance to save her, or at least, the on-screen version of her, through saving the fictional character of Nancy from her grim fate, a sweet-souled, unaware shadow of actress Amanda Cartwright. However, while the pairs’ performances are superb, along with the rest of the cast of Alexander Ludwig, Alia Shawkat, Nina Dobrev, Thomas Middleditch, Angela Trimbur (and more), Adam Devine is horribly miscast as Kurt, the sportsman-type character, as, instead of being an athletic, perverted jock, Devine comes across as far more pathetic and obnoxious than he should, almost as if he isn’t fully aware of what slasher archetype he is supposed to be portraying.

Other than some briefly utilised CGI, which has noticeably aged very poorly. A large portion of the visuals throughout The Final Girls are impressive yet not always authentic to the ’80s time-period, as the cinematography by Elie Smolkin allows the camera to swerve, zoom and spin around the characters, all the while, the film’s colour palette is either immensely vibrant or exclusively black and white for whenever a flashback to the killer’s origin story is called for. Moreover, the film features several creative sequences, including a tooling-up montage and a slow-motion chase, both of which not only add to the film’s style but are also terrifically edited.

Though lacking a central theme like many iconic slashers from the 1980s, the original score by Gregory James Jenkins and Eddy Zak is like a musical time-capsule of sounds that are no longer used within the horror genre, as tracks like The Diaphragm Van and Puttin’ It Together are easy-on-the-ears synth tracks that whilst competent and reminiscent of ’80s horror scores, never quite manage to surpass any of their inspirations.

Unfortunately, despite all these positives, The Final Girls isn’t an impeccable horror-comedy, as even with its brief runtime, the film does lose a bit of steam during its last third or so, as the story begins to fall into less inventive territory as the body count rises. Still, the screenwriters find ways to integrate a clever surprise or two, such as the cliffhanger ending, which alludes to the prospect of a money-grubbing sequel, titled; Camp Bloodbath 2: Cruel Summer. The second primary issue The Final Girls suffers from is its almost complete absence of violence/gore, as aside from one or two shots of dripping blood, for a slasher, Camp Bloodbath seems somewhat family-friendly, which, in my opinion, is a huge misstep in light of the slasher subgenre being well-known for its excessive amounts of blood and guts.

In summary, with much of The Final Girls essentially being a film-within-a-film, it’s entirely plausible that this horror-comedy could’ve declined into nothing but constant fourth-wall-breaking jokes and pop culture references. Yet, through its engaging story and facetious writing, The Final Girls successfully deconstructs the slasher subgenre without the cynicism that could render a comedy into an unsurprising, humourless snore. Rating: 7/10.