Amanda and her daughter Max are having a hard time financially. Amanda goes to audition after audition, but can't escape her past as a one time scream queen in the 1986 slasher Camp Bloodbath. On the way home, they get into a car accident, killing Amanda. Three years later, Max's friend Duncan convinces her to be a guest at a screening of Camp Bloodbath through bribery. She is overcome with emotion seeing her mother and stands to leave, but through a series of coincidences, the theater is set on fire. Max and her friends Duncan, Gertie, and Chris plus her former best friend Vicki escape through the movie screen to safety. Things seem a bit weird since they end up in a forest and they realize they are in the movie when the car with Tina and the other counselors pull up to ask for direction. How can they escape this slasher movie alive?
The Final Girls is a charming, meta slasher that has the characters trying to survive the slasher with their knowledge of the film and the genre's tropes. Camp Bloodbath is closely modeled after Friday the 13th Part II, so it feels familiar and nostalgic to the audience. The film cycles through over and over if they do nothing, so Max and her crew decide to participate in the story. Their initial plan is to stick to the sardonic final girl to survive, but their involvement causes the characters to panic and she dies in a fiery blaze. The group has to come up with a new plan and navigate the world that transports them to the past for flashbacks and text on the screen as physical form. Billy is this world's version of Jason Vorhees who gets revenge on camp counselors with a machete for tormenting and physically and emotionally scarring him.
The characters in the film are very flat and generally badly written. Tina is super chipper and flirtatious. Her whole reason for being is doing a striptease and being killed by Billy. Her innocent question asking why her boobs make him so mad is hilarious. Kurt is similarly oversexed, but with an undercurrent of mocking and insults for everyone around him. Nancy lives the longest and has the biggest transformation of any of the movie characters. Her initial purpose is to have sex with Kurt and die, but her interactions with the real people change her. At first, Max tries to steer Nancy away from sex with lies and peer pressure. The change takes place after they really talk and explain the entire situation. Nancy now has aspirations to go to college and realizes that she doesn't have to be what the script says she should.
At its core, the female friendships and relationships are in the forefront with focus on support and getting at underlying conflicts. Max is obviously upset about her mother's death and keeps people at arm's length. She becomes closer to Gertie, Nancy (as her own person, not just her mom), and even Vicki. Vicki confesses that she's been cruel because she was hurt when Max pushed her away after her mom died. Once they are honest with each other, their facades come down and they are on their way to fixing their friendship. Max forms a friendship with Nancy similar that the one with her mom and gets some extra time plus the opportunity to say goodbye. When she realizes there can only be one final girl, Nancy sacrifices herself in a dance for herself and Max, filled with love and fun despite the horror movie trappings. Her death is heartbreaking and it imbues Max with Final Girl power in addition to resolving some of her feelings about her mom.
The Final Girls is a refreshing movie that both critiques and elevates the tropes of the slasher genre. Virginity is only valued because of the outdated genre, not because any of the modern characters actually find significance in it. There are so many touches of feminism and progressive views that contrast well with the reactionary views within the outdated slasher. While this film does lose a little bit on the second viewing, it's still an enjoyable, fun, and emotional film that I would love to see a sequel to.
My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins
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