The Final Girls (2015)
The Final Girls follows Max Cartwright (Taissa Farmiga) the daughter of a 80s slasher icon Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman) who died in a car crash. 3 years after the incident Duncan (Thomas Middleditch) has convinces Max to attend a celebration of the Camp Bloodbath Movies with her friends, Gertie (Alia Shawkat), Chris (Alexander Ludwig) and Vicki (Nina Dobrev). At the screening of the movie, a fire breaks out and the friends look to cut through the screen only to find themselves transported into the movie.
Inside the movie Max gets to meet her mother in character Nancy, along with the rest of the characters Kurt (Adam Devine), Tina (Angela Trimbur), Paula (Chloe Bridges) and Blake (Tory N Thompson) who have been placed to be the victims for the slasher Billy Murphy. The real people must work with the movie characters to fight Billy in an attempt to escape, while Max gets more time with her mother.
The Final girls does to horror movies what The Last Hero did to action movies, turning the characters and real-life people. This becomes a full blown meta comedy on the slasher genre. We get all the classic stereotypes from the slasher genre through two generations, who will be focusing on the different eras. If you are a fan of the slasher genre, you will get where each of the deaths has been taken from to work for the extra comedic value, knowing they are over the top and ridiculous. Angela Trimbur is by far the star of the comedic side of the film, playing the dumb girl perfectly through the film. The whole cast are fantastic to watch with Taissa Farmiga continuing her rampage in the horror world.
There is a much deeper message about trying to understand how a horror icon could struggle for work after certain movies build reputations, even if the star will end up with a cult following. Away from that, we get the idea of being able to spend time with a loved one, one more time after death, even if it is in a world of make believe.
Rating 4/5
