BARE BONES: THE FINAL GIRLS

THE FINAL GIRLS (2015)

Max (Taissa Farmiga) is the daughter of the late Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman), actress and star of the cult classic 80s horror movie Camp Bloodbath. At an anniversary showing of the film, that Max is coerced to attend, a bizarre accident transplant’s Max and her friends into the film itself. Now trapped within the movie, Max must find a way for them all to survive as Jason-like killer Billy Murphy (Dan B. Norris) is not only after the cast, including her mother, but she and her friends as well…and the film’s original final girl has accidentally been killed!

Flick is directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and written by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller as a tribute to 80s horror flicks and definitely has it’s heart in the right place. The filmmakers have some clever fun with the tropes of those horror flicks, as well as, mixing in characters from the present with knowledge of what is going to transpire and why. If the film stumbles a bit it’s because, if you are going to pay tribute to 80s horror flicks, PG-13 is not the way to do it. The type of flicks they are trying to pay tribute to were in an age where blood, boobs and body count were a main ingredient. Here, the tame teen-friendly tone neuters what they are trying to do, to a degree. Also, some of the contemporary camera wizardry looks way out of place in an 80s homage that’s supposed to take place in 1986 before computer FX. Otherwise, there is a good cast that has fun with the material and the scenes with Max reuniting with her dead mother do have an effective sentinmentality and sweetness to them. Not a great movie, but a harmless and entertaining horror homage that has some clever fun with the tropes of the era.

-MonsterZero NJ

Advertisement