The Final Girls (2015)

Yes! The Final Girls is real good. There, now go see it!

OK, then. I'll say some stuff.

The Final Girls is entertaining from the very first frame. Just a fun ride from start to finish. It is very well made, there is a ton of well known faces. (at least for most of us) The atmosphere is just aces! So good. So nice and cozy.

It's one part Friday the 13th, one part Last Action Hero, and that's a fun little mix I'll tell ya! It's a feel-good-slasher.

It's very visually appealing, and you really get the feeling that you are in a movie. Well, that they are in a movie. That you are in a movie in a movie, with them. You see what I'm saying?

And here is one thing that sets The Final Girls apart from a lot of other slashers and horror-comedies: It has heart. A good chunk too. And good acting.

There is this one scene in slo-mo - So cool! Just wanted to say it. No reason.

The only thing that could have made it better would be, of course, gore and blood. For some reason it's PG13, so we get little blood, no nudity and no swearing. But it still manages to be entertaining as hell, and that's saying something. (If we are real nice, maybe Santa will bring us an unrated version?)

So, do I have to say more now? Huh? Go watch it!

Fmovies: Three years after the death of her actress mother Amanda (who really should have kept her eyes on the road), teenager Max (Taissa Farmiga) is talked into attending a showing of her mum's best known movie, cult '80s slasher Camp Bloodbath. When a fire breaks out in the theatre, Max and four of her school friends are forced to escape through the screen where they find themselves trapped inside the movie, stalked by its hulking, mask wearing, machete wielding killer, Billy Murphy.

Written by M.A. Fortin and former actor Joshua Miller (who played the vampire kid in Near Dark), The Final Girls offers up no shortage of knowing clichés and clever meta-moments guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any self-respecting slasher fan: in order to improve their chances of survival, the pals must exploit their knowledge of slasher conventions, while dealing with such hurdles as black and white flashbacks and awkward moments of slow motion. Max also has the added issue of trying to preserve the life of camp counsellor Nancy, the character in the film that was played by her mother (a plot-line that adds genuine heart to the film).

However, as ingenious as the script undoubtedly is, The Final Girls does miss the mark slightly by being a strictly PG-13 affair, director Todd Strauss-Schulson keeping the action free of the gore and nudity that is synonymous with '80s slashers. For the film to be absolutely true to the genre it is having so much fun with, there should have been at least one skinny dipping scene, some gratuitous sex, and a bit of decent splatter, but all it can offer is a few bloodless death scenes and a couple of the actresses in their underwear. For shame!

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for having camp slut Tina dance to Cherry Pie by Warrant (such a good tune that I'm willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that it wasn't even released until 1990).

Reviewers Notes:

1. Prior to 1994, Quentin Tarantino was actually known as ... wait for it ... Quentin Tarantino. The event that transformed him into a film icon to be forever known simply as "QT" was of course Pulp Fiction. The record will show, members of the jury, that Pulp was not necessarily the best acted or best produced film at the time but what it had was the best script of the era, a script so sharp you could cut yourself merely by watching the film. Scripts that good, scripts written by insiders for outsiders wanting to feel like insiders, are rare. So rare they appear about once a decade. And this is the sharp script of the present era.

2. Once you grasp that the unfettered joy in watching this film is all about the script, you will appreciate that the performance of Taissa Farmiga is simply an unexpected bonus. Every film needs "glue" to keep both the characters and the audience grounded, and here she is the glue. But she is great glue. She has a sort of "inner glow" (a la early Rachel McAdams) and also a chameleon-like quality which keeps the audience interested.

3. The rest of the cast is great, but really this excellent film is a showcase for the Fortin/Miller screenplay and the constantly innovative direction of Todd Strauss-Schulson. Highly recommended.

The Final Girls fmovies. This film has one hell of a premise that immediately grabbed my attention. It features the exact blend of comedy and horror that I love and that so rarely filmmakers do right. The severely underrated Club Dread is a perfect example of how so many people can miss the intended humour. Then you have hits like Tucker & Dale vs Evil, which not only is a great premise, but is also both hilarious and a bloody good time. People either seem to love or hate these films and it's most likely because it's so hard to balance the two genres. When done right, it's gold, when done wrong, it's terrible.

The Final Girls, for the most part, lands on the good side of the spectrum. Max, loses her mother in a car accident and 3 years to the day, is invited to a screening of her late mother's most famous film, a cheesy 80's horror flick called Camp Blood. During the screening the theatre catches fire, so Max and her friends have to escape and cut right through the theatre screen. Next thing they know, they're in the movie. The exact same movie her mother appears in, which now gives Max a second opportunity to be with her mother, only if she survives the deranged killer roaming the woods.

The film has a great opportunity to capitalize on a lot of horror clichés, much like the way The Cabin in the Woods did brilliantly. One character in particular, a Randy Meeks of horror films, is the perfect opportunity to connect the film characters with the viewer at home. What would Randy do if he were literally transported into the film Scream? This was an interesting approach that I hoped the filmmakers would take. They don't. They kind of walk the line, but they are pretty inconsistent with things.

Being in the horror film and knowing how it ends is perfect fodder for comedy gold. The film did make me laugh, many times, but I wanted to laughs to be really enjoyable. Instead I chuckled a lot throughout the film. Instead of being a comedy, the film has a surprising amount of drama thrown in. Max has an opportunity to reunite with her mother, only the person in the movie isn't her mother, she's the character her mother plays in the film. Again, great set ups for comedy gold, yet we get mild humour. I little disappointing on that end, but still enough comedy in the film to make me smile.

The filmmakers throw some interesting aspects of the genre at the viewers and the characters. The characters can actually hear the "ch ch ch cha cha cha" that accompanies a nearby victim or a flashback that transports the character even further back in time. Title cards that they can interact with, a specific time line of events to unfold. Every 92 minutes, things start over again because that is the length of the film. These things are clever and make for a unique viewing experience.

One of the biggest problems with the film is that it doesn't go far enough with the material. It's held back by the rating. The film features very little gore and no nudity. These things are staples of the horror genre, especially the 80's slasher films that the film is parodying. If the film has embraced these things and given us an R rated comedy, then it would have been a lot better. It felt restrained in a sense.

Not a wasted opportunity, not at all. The film is good and those who enjoy these types of movies will surely have a good time. I just think the possibilities could have been so much more. They had a great idea and didn't try and take it any further beyond that. This f

The 80's slasher flicks are loved by horror fans more than any other sub-genre of horror because they were fun. What made them fun ? The inventive kills, the over the top bad dialogue, the campy mood, the silly acting, the music, the legendary killer, the gore , and the nudity. So can a PG-13 film successful spoof 80s slasher convention ? This film is proof that it can. You just have to realize that this is not a movie that pays homage to slasher films by recreating the same kind of film. Its a spoof of the silliness of 80s horror. The characters are all likable, and all the actors are well cast. The story line is very clever. And while it may not be the first movie to deconstruct and bend horror film rules, it is one of the best. Watch it in the right mindset and you will not be disappointed especially if your a fan of 80's slasher horror. Do not go in to this one expecting lots of gore and nudity, and you are in for a wicked surprise.

The teenager Max Cartwright (Taissa Farmiga) misses her mother Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman), who died three years ago in a car accident. Amanda was a horror movies actress that has become famous because of her character Nancy in the cult slasher film "Camp Bloodbath 1 & 2". Max is invited by her friend Duncan (Thomas Middleditch), who is the brother of her best friend Gertie Michaels (Alia Shawkat), to participate in the lecture in the end of the session of "Camp Bloodbath 1 & 2" promoted by the fans in the movie theater. Max meets the handsome Chris Briggs (Alexander Ludwig), who has broken up with his girlfriend Vicki Summers (Nina Dobrev), and they stay together. Out of the blue, there is a fire in the theater and Max, Chris, Duncan, Gertie and Vicki try to escape through the screen. But soon they find that they are trapped in "Camp Bloodbath 1" with the characters Nancy, Kurt (Adam DeVine), Tina (Angela Trimbur) and Paula (Chloe Bridges) in the summer camp. Further, the serial-killer Billy Murphy (Dan B. Norris) is hunting them down.

"The Final Girls" is an entertaining parody to slasher films that has potential to become cult-movie. The story entwines "Friday the 13th" or any other slasher in a summer camp with the idea of "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985), repeated in "Last Action Hero" (1993) and "Pleasantville"(1998), where the viewer joins the characters in the film. There are many funny moments and Malin Akerman is so beautiful that convinces performing the role of the teenager Nancy. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Terror nos Bastidores" ("Terror in the Backstage")