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This 2015 Meta-Horror Movie Is a Hilarious, Forgotten Love Letter to Slasher Flicks
If you know the basics of a slasher movie, this is the genre-busting horror flick for you.
We all know the basics of the slasher genre: a secluded camp, sex-crazed college kids, and most importantly an unstoppable killer out to stalk and kill them all in inventive ways within the tidy span of around 90 minutes.
Even though horror fans can almost certainly spot the beats as they come these days, the slasher genre endures because it’s such a compelling genre trope in itself — which also makes it the perfect muse for a meta-take that can subvert those expectations while still remaining true to what makes them great in the first place.
Case in point: The Final Girls (streaming now on Peacock), a 2015 mid-budget horror flick that finds a group of modern day teens accidentally thrust into a classic slasher movie through a bit of movie (and literal) magic. The concept is a bit complicated, but it works. The movie stars Taissa Farmiga as Max, who loses her mother in a car crash. But Max’s mother, Amanda (Malin Akerman), starred in the fictional 1980s slasher Camp Bloodbath, so Max uses the film as a way to remember her mother and still “see” her, even though she’s gone.
The Final Girls takes you inside a 1980s slasher movie
But things go truly meta when Max and her friends are at a screening of Camp Bloodbath. With the theater on fire, they slash their way through the screen itself to find a way to safety — but instead of finding a fire escape — they wind up in Camp Bloodbath. Like, the literal Camp Bloodbath, having somehow leaped into the film itself.
Thankfully, they have horror cinephile Duncan (Thomas Middleditch) along with them, who quickly puts the pieces together that they’ve become trapped in the loop of the film itself, which resets the story every 92 minutes (i.e. the film’s runtime). So Max and her friends join along to ride out the slasher movie to see if making it to the ending can get them back to reality — which creates the perfect lens to appreciate, mock and explore the tropes of the genre from a fish out of water perspective.
The cast of Camp Bloodbath characters check off all the classic slasher archetypes, with Akerman playing the virginal victim Nancy, giving Max some heartfelt moments to bond and spend time with this younger version of her mother. But once Max and her friends start interfering with the events of the film’s story, things quickly go off the rails. The film’s original “Final Girl” and a few others crash their car while trying to escape, leaving the story without a true “Final Girl” to defeat the slasher killer and end the movie.
Then there’s the group’s one-note tough guy Kurt, played hilariously by Adam DeVine (Workaholics, Pitch Perfect), who is channeling the most cliched macho 1980s concepts into one character with almost reckless abandon. If anyone steals the show, it’s DeVine, who is clearly having the time of his life with the role.
We get to see the group cleverly work their way through the slasher pic, finding their own places within these roles and tropes (like a more heartfelt Scream vibe), but with that mother-daughter relationship for Max providing some surprisingly emotional heft to the story at large. Yes, it’s funny — but seeing Max work through her grief with a machete against a Jason Voorhees-esque boogeyman is truly cathartic.
The film proved a modest hit with horror fans upon release, but largely flew under the radar. With The Final Girls now available on Peacock, it’s the perfect horror deep cut to check out this Halloween.
