Final Girls, The (2015) [Blu-ray]
Comedy | Horror

A young woman grieving the loss of her mother, a famous scream queen from the 1980s, finds herself pulled into the world of her mom's most famous movie. Reunited, the women must fight off the film's maniacal killer.

Storyline: When Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends reluctantly attend a tribute screening of an infamous '80s slasher film that starred Max's late mother (Malin Akerman), they are accidentally sucked into the silver screen. They soon realize they are trapped inside the cult classic movie and must team up with the fictional and ill-fated "Camp Bloodbath" counselors, including Max's mom as the shy scream queen, to battle the film's machete-wielding, masked killer. With the body count rising in scene after iconic scene, who will be THE FINAL GIRLS left standing and live to escape this film? Written by Vertical Entertainment

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, November 3, 2015 -- Retro-styled Horror movies -- Slasher flicks that hearken back to the 1980s heyday of Jason, Freddy, and Michael -- seem like a growing trend at the moment. Movies like Lost After Dark are leading the charge in the return to the simpler pleasures of hack-and-slash violence and hormonal teenagers winding up on the wrong side of a sharp object. But forcing the issue isn't a formula for success, as Lost After Dark proved. It takes more. It takes love and appreciation, not just a mask and a machete. Enter The Final Girls, a lovingly created 80s-themed Slasher flick that doesn't just recall the era, it inhabits it. Like, really inhabits it, as in 2015 winds up transplanted into 1980-something. It's a spunky and spirited film that understands its charge and blends classic genre motifs and modern fandom with ease.

Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman) once starred in one of the fan-favorite 80s Horror movies, Camp Bloodbath. Now decades removed from the role, she's tried to move on but cannot distance herself from the part that made her famous. She's doing her best to raise her teenage daughter Max (Taissa Farmiga), but she's struggling to find work and pay the bills. Unfortunately, a car accident takes Amanda's life, leaving Max alone. Several years later, she's invited to a screening of Camp Bloodbath. She initially balks at the idea but her friends talk her into going. A fire breaks out in the theater. The exits are crowded, and her group's only hope of escape is to cut through the screen. When they do so, they find themselves inside the movie, at the very beginning. As time passes, the movie loops back to its starting point until they decide to become involved and rewrite cinema history.

Think Last Action Hero reshaped for Horror and get an idea of what to expect in The Final Girls. A magic ticket is replaced with a slash through a movie screen, and there are several victims, er, teenagers, transported into the movie rather than a single preteen fanboy, but the principle is essentiality the same that sees the real world intersect with movie make-believe. Much like Last Action Hero, The Final Girls demonstrates a deep understanding of its genre -- all the types and tropes -- and what it means to be a fan. The intersection of camp moviemaking and intense love for it results in a fun, brisk watch that's both a straight ode to the classics of yore (Friday the 13th in particular) and a smart, savvy, but not at all dishonest reworking of the formula once the meshing of the two worlds takes full effect. The movie is very much self-aware and packed with sweeping homage and subtle winks-and-nods alike that should delight longtime genre fans who know the movies so well that they could probably fit right in (modern day straight hair styling notwithstanding). But could they survive?

The Final Girls benefits greatly from its keen insight and understanding of 80's Horror and Director Todd Strauss-Schulson's (A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas) and Writers M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller' abilities to so effortlessly mesh it with more modern sensibilities and character self-awareness. Beyond the few primaries, characters are largely reduced to single-cue development that allows the movie to hone in on basic qualities while giving the primaries a little more breathing room to develop under the flood of tickles and teases and everything else that floods the screen. Cast is terrific as well on both sides of the coin, both in terms of the more singleminded Adam Levine types and the more complicated, but hardly inaccessible, leads who don't so much drive the story but instead reinforce it. The unique mother-daughter relationship doesn't add much more than an interesting dynamic -- there's not a ton of deep, meaningful exploration to any facet of the relationship -- but it at least gives the movie a weight that balances the otherwise heavy-on-the-nostalgia construction that's also offset by some timely, and sometimes self-deprecating, humor.

The Final Girls blends nostalgia trip with self-awareness in a Last Action Hero-like time capsule of a movie that takes classic 80's Horror stylings and brings a handful of hungry fans and a lead character with a connection to the movie into the retro world of summer camp hack-and-slash. It's hardly brilliant but it's very well done, capturing not only the broader essence of a favorite genre but understanding what it means to be a fan, just taken here from one side of the screen to another. Horror hounds should love this, and anyone even passably familiar with 80s Slasher trope should find it at least passably enjoyable. Sony's Blu-ray release of The Final Girls features excellent video and audio to go along with a satisfying assortment of extra content. Highly recommended.

[CSW] -2.8- The Final Girls is a clever twist on the classic slasher genre. This movie mixes a satirical comedy with real sentiment in an amusing way. However, I do feel like this film had the potential to better than it is. The plot and the jokes probably would have benefited from a little more time in the creative oven. Still, it's a fun watch for anyone who loves a good horror movie.
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box codes were available at the time of this rental but they are available now.


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