They won’t be singing kumbaya. They’ll be screaming kum-ba-no!
The Final Girls is a surprisingly heartfelt horror film that deals with the aspects of grief as much as parodying 80s slasher films.
Before Viewing
Based on the trailer this film appears to be about the daughter of an actress in a film called Camp Bloodbath, which is the “grand-daddy” of slasher films. A bunch of young people attend a screening of the film and find themselves transported inside the film. They must figure a way out of the storyline, while the killer stalks them and the other characters in the film. It’s another meta-commentary, comedic horror flick that will require an intimate knowledge of how to be The Final Girls.
Presented below is the trailer for the film.
The Final Girls title card.
After Viewing
Max Cartwright (Taissa Farmiga) views a trailer for the fictional 80s horror film Camp Bloodbath on her phone. Her mother, actress and Camp Bloodbath star, Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman) comes out of an audition, disappointed. On their way home they have an auto accident and Amanda is killed. Three years later, Max is invited to an anniversary screening of her mother’s film and its sequel by the Assistant General manager of the Varsity theater, Duncan (Thomas Middleditch). His step-sister, Gertie (Alia Shawkat), is good friends with Max. The two girls are also joined by Max’s Classics tutor Chris (Alexander Ludwig), who has a crush on her.
The film screening is packed by “Bath-maticians,” the nickname for fans of the “granddaddy of all campsite slasher films.” Fans react to the film’s dialog and follow along with actions on screen, such as taking a drink when a character drinks. One audience members spills a bottle of alcohol and another drops part of their cigarette, which sets the theater on fire. With the exits blocked, Max, Gertie, Chris, Duncan and Vicki (Nina Dobrev), a snobby yet attractive friend of theirs, attempt to escape by slicing open the film screen to get to the exit on the other side.
They awaken in a vibrant, technicolor forest where they witness a 1980s era van driven by Kurt (Adam Devine), a character from the film. Tina (Angela Trimbur), asks Max and her friends the way to Camp Blue Finch. Ninety-two minutes later the entire sequence repeats. Duncan quickly realizes they are stuck in the film, and agrees to play along, saying they are all new counselors. Also on board the van is Nancy, the character played by Amanda. Max tears up seeing her mother again. Knowing what happens to her “mother” in the film, Max vows to prevent Nancy from having sex so that she will not be killed by Billy Murphy (Daniel Norris), the machete-wielding killer.
Duncan, Gertie, Vicki, Chris, and Max sit down for the anniversary screening of “Camp Bloodbath.”
Duncan explains the premise of the Final Girl, which is a virgin that survives the massacre. In this case it’s Paula (Chloe Bridges), a leather wearing, Trans-Am driving, bad girl. They agree to stick by here until the film is done. Unfortunately, with the way Max and friends are talking, the movie cast becomes suspicious of them. Paula and Kurt flee in her car, but crash into a totem pole, the car exploding around them. Gertie nominates Max to be the new Final Girl, being that she is the only virgin among them.
Duncan is killed off early on by Billy, who believed that he was safe–since he’s not part of the movie. Max and friends set a series of traps to stop Billy, using sexy Tina as bait. Billy will be attracted to kill her as soon as she starts taking her clothes off. As Billy enters the cabin, Tina accidentally trips and falls into a bear trap, and the other film counselor, Blake (Tory N. Thompson), is stabbed by the killer. Gertie and Vicki are trapped under a fallen bookshelf but sacrifice themselves to dump gasoline on the flaming arrows Max, Chris, and Nancy have fired into Billy.
Chris is injured and Nancy gets captured, so it’s up to Max to end this. However, even getting ahold of Billy’s machete, she cannot injure Billy while Nancy is still alive. Nancy seems to understand, and in a heartfelt moment sacrifices herself to Billy so that Max can kill the killer and escape. With Nancy dead, Max gets a sudden burst of energy and manages to decapitate Billy after some amazing fight choreography. The credits for the film roll through the sky as Max and Chris kiss. They awaken in a hospital, where Duncan, Vicki and Gertie are all alive. They hear something in the hallway. As they peek out, the title credit for Camp Bloodbath 2: Cruel Summer, flies at them with Billy stalking through the doors. Max grabs an IV pole and charges at the reanimated killer.
“You wouldn’t catch me dead in a movie. You’re the actress here.” – Max
Within the world of the movie, Kurt, Tina, Blake and Nancy ready for the start of summer camp, unaware that a vicious killer will be joining them.
On the surface The Final Girls appears to be another comedic horror film, that comments on the genre it’s spoofing while adding in metatextuality. It does all these things, but it also goes beyond the basic chuckles and references to tell a heartfelt story about a grieving teenager at the loss of her mother. It uses the convention of the horror film, and the film-within-a-film to achieve this reconciliation while providing a few light thrills along the way. It instead chooses to present a series of strong characters instead of strong scares.
The title of the film is based on a term coined by Carol J. Clover in her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film from 1992. Clover’s idea is that the “final girl” is literally the last female protagonist of a horror film that either kills the killer, or just survives the final attempt at her life, much like Duncan explains in the film. The basis for this hypothesis was culled from the slasher films from the 70s and 80s where this trope gained popularity. Not necessarily because filmmakers had an overt idea to create an idea of a “final girl,” but because these films often copied formulaic elements from one film to another, each piggybacking on the success of each other. The final girl was not necessarily heroic either. Sometimes she was just the final female, a trauma survivor, as Clover puts it. Examples of the final girl stem from classic horror films such as Black Christmas, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and even Alien.
The Final Girls breaks the convention of these types of films through its use of characters that understand the formula of slasher films. But it also adheres to the conventions since the characters are also stuck within the confines of a 1986 horror film. Max and her friends, particularly the nerdy Duncan, are fluent with the cinematic language of horror films, while Nancy and the other camp counselors are unaware that they are caught up in somebody else’s story. While other horror films have had characters understand the conventions of the genre (such as Popcorn or Scream), never have those characters had to interact with the ones from a horror film itself. This clash of cultures, as it were, leads to some interesting questions that may occur to the audience.
Once Duncan enters the events of the film, and the real kids see the first murder (of the hitchhiker and counselor Mimi) he initially assumes that he is safe and still just an observer. His monologue in front of Billy raises a question about what might he change by “giving away the ending” to the Camp Bloodbath film? He is quickly killed (apparently) by a thrown machete as the rest of the kids realize the inherent danger they’re in. This helps Max realize that she needs to keep Nancy from having sex, thereby “saving” her mom. The pluralization of the film’s title seems to pose the idea that there will be at least two final girls: Max and Nancy. But the odds are not in Nancy’s favor as it seems ordained that she must not be the final girl, and must die in order to elevate the actual final girl to the mythic status of killer-slayer.
As with “Night of the Creeps,” the flashbacks are shot in black & white, which the real-world characters can see, but the film characters are unaware of.
This leads to one of the most heartfelt moments of any horror film, as the grief that Max has been feeling, and denying, since her mother’s death spills out. She admits that Nancy is really a character played by her mom, urging her not to sacrifice herself. But Nancy, being a character in the film (and therefore destined to die) tells her it will be okay. She tells Max that she needs to let go. Nancy feels validated as she finally gets seen as a real person, instead of a dumbed-down sex toy, which both elevates her character and allows a re-connection between Max and her mother. Max uses the cathartic experience of getting to reconnect with her mother as a chance to process the grief and regret that came with losing her so tragically and unexpectedly. Nancy’s final strip-tease (to entice the killer out of the foggy woods) is to Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes, which was played in the opening moments, and is Max and Amanda’s song. In the same way that the song compares the unidentified woman in it with movie stars Bette Davis and Greta Garbo, Nancy (née Amanda) is finally seen as a movie star, which was her dream. In real life she never got her break, due to being typecast from Camp Bloodbath and dying early. But here, in the unreality of the film within the film, she shines on. “She’s precocious, and she knows just what it takes to make a pro blush.”
The question is also raised: what if Nancy were able to exit with Max and her friends? Would she be able to exist in the real world as a younger version of Amanda? Would she and Max stay close as friends, or would it be a parent-child relation? Some interesting ideas to discuss with friends, for sure. One thing that does seem obvious is, once they leave the film, her friends would come back to life, which they do. But as with any true horror film, or one that has the love of the genre that The Final Girls does, there’s one last twist. Don’t forget that the screening they attended in the opening moments was a double-feature, that included the sequel to the film. One which is “much cooler than the original,” according to Duncan. The characters need to go through this all over again, just before the film cuts to black!
The Final Girls feels like so much more than was promised that it’s quite refreshing. It’s got some thrills and chills, as well as zany humor–courtesy of Devine and Middleditch, but mostly it’s a film about a young girl struggling with the loss of her mother and best friend. The trailer gives no sense of this aspect, which is probably appropriate, but is also a great reason to see this film. It ends up making you feel things that typical horror films do not usually provide audiences.
To the characters trapped in the film, the titles of the movies appear as 3D words racing towards them. Props to the production for getting the Bananarama song Cruel Summer to play at this point in the film.
Assorted Musings
- Co-writer Joshua John Miller reportedly wrote the story about the death of his dad, actor Jason Miller, who was Father Karras in The Exorcist.
- Nancy and Tina appear to be named after Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and Christina “Tina” Gray (Amanda Wyss) from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
- Taissa Farmiga is the younger sister of actress Vera Farmiga known for Orphan and The Conjuring series. The two appeared together in the horror spin-off to The Conjuring, The Nun.
- The title for the film is designed very much like the title for John Carpenter’s The Thing.
Having grown up on comics, television and film, “Jovial” Jay feels destined to host podcasts and write blogs related to the union of these nerdy pursuits. Among his other pursuits he administrates and edits stories at the two largest Star Wars fan sites on the ‘net (Rebelscum.com, TheForce.net), and co-hosts the Jedi Journals podcast over at the ForceCast network.