The Final Girls Review

If I tell you this movie is like Scream filtered through the world of Last Action Hero, I will have given you the premise of this movie, but will have told you nothing about its heart. This movie is a parody of the classic 80s slasher genre, but, as strange as it may sound, a good natured and emotionally poignant one that clearly wears its’ heart on its sleeve.

Taissa Farmiga (daughter of the beatiful and talented Vera Farmiga) plays Max, the daughter of Amanda Cartwright (Marin Akerman) a lady who dreamed of becoming Bette Davis but instead whose main claim to faim was an 80s cult classic slasher called “Camp Bloodbath”.

After Max’s mother dies, she and some friends attend a screening of said movie, and through some supernatural crapola wind up transported into the film. Every single stereotype of the 80s slasher movie is lampooned here. Most of the jokes worked on me, but it was the relationship between Max and Nancy (the character Max’s mother played in the movie) that is the emotional center of the movie.

In the original movie, Nancy was just a shy throwaway character, but this time around Max is determined that she be the “final girl” as her friends and a cast of 80s tropes do battle with “Billy” who may or may not be Jason Voorhees/Michael Myers 2nd cousin once removed. There are so many great performances here. Angela Trimbur is a hoot as Tina, the sex obsessed character who can’t stop gyrating in every scene. Then there’s Adam DeVine as Kurt, who gets some of the best laughs of the movie playing the oblivious jock character.

I really, really enjoyed this. Pulling off a parody without malice and cynicism is a tricky proposition as you risk making a steaming bowl of pap, but this movie finds just the right balance of sweet and slash.

The Final Girls gets a three out of five: GOOD.