The Final Girls is a very unique take on the ever growing meta horror sub-genre. It takes a group of characters and inserts them into a fictional 80s horror movie slasher, Camp Bloodbath. Once there they must try to not only return to the real world, but also survive the movie before being hacked to pieces by little Billy Murphy. And once in the movie we meet those lovable, clichéd characters that most of us are familiar with, the virgin (aka the final girl), the quiet shy girl (aka the cute girl who sadly doesn't survive), the sexy party girl (aka you have zero chance of surviving), the jock (aka the sexual deviant), the wannabe hero (aka you aren't the real hero so you're gonna die), and a few more body count extras.
The movie for the most part is very funny, especially early on in the movie when we first meet the original characters in the movie. Everyone is so over the top when we first meet them that it's hard not to have a smile on your face at anytime they are speaking. Every conversation leads back to some sort of sexual innuendo and it's great. But then there are other times when we get some one on one time between a mother and her daughter and the movie is surprisingly touching and emotional during those moments. It's this aspect of the movie that gives the movie a pulse, you care about these characters (even if the movie isn't as dark and daunting as it seems to be).
But that's not to say the movie is perfect, there are times when I found myself disappointed with the script and the direction the movie was taking. It's not that it was terrible, but there was so much room for a movie like this that I wish it had thrown in a few more ideas. After all the movie is barely 90 minutes long and I feel the majority of people wouldn't mind sticking around a bit longer to see some other ideas flourish.
The Final Girls is one of the better movies to fly under the radar and if you count this as a horror movie (which it's very light on horror) it would certainly quality as one of the best of the year. Like I said, the movie packs a surprisingly emotional punch but also doles out plenty of zany mayhem to keep you interested. Hopefully this this movie is a big enough hit on VOD that it somehow gets a sequel because we all know sequels are bigger, badder, and crazier than the original, especially those wacky 80s slashers!
