The Final Girls – Film Review

Max (Taissa Farmiga), recently orphaned, goes to see a screening of a B-horror movie that her mother made twenty years earlier. When Max and her friends find themselves in the world of the film itself, they must apply their knowledge of horror tropes to survive.

Horror tropes absolutely litter the genre, and it’s usually an extremely annoying thing. There’s nothing more annoying (to me, at least) than watching a horror film that’s littered with terrible tropes, with my personal least favorite being the overdone jump scare. Jump scares aren’t scary; they’re startling. Of course, there’s also the group of characters in a slasher that make stupid decisions such as walking inside the dark and dreary basement or splitting up with their group to go investigate something.

The only horror “trope” that I absolutely adore is the final girl trope. There’s something so oddly endearing about watching one girl rise above the rest and kick an ungodly amount of, well… you know. Of course, the most iconic final girl would easily have to be Jamie Lee Curtis‘ Laurie Strode from the wildly popular Halloween franchise – an amazing character brought to life beautifully by Curtis, for sure. But my all-time favorite final girl in film is definitely Tree Gelbman, portrayed by Jessica Rothe in the Happy Death Day films. Seriously, though, where’s her Academy Award?

Final girls in 80s slashers were kind of incredible to watch. A lot of the Friday the 13th movies have them and while it can be overdone, I still love them. Much like how Scream poked fun at horror tropes, Todd Strauss-Schulson‘s The Final Girls is a truly funny and genuinely clever take on the horror genre that pokes fun at the final girl trope while also coming complete with a lot of bloody goodness.

With a running time of only ninety-one minutes including credits, The Final Girls feels like it has a break-neck pace, and it’s all the better for it. There’s rarely a scene here that feels unnecessary and the film doesn’t go on for longer than it needs to. At the same time, when the end credits roll, you won’t feel like you want more of it either, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just like when you eat a nice meal. You don’t want more, you’re satisfied with what you got.

Screenwriters M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller clearly have a strong understanding of the genre and find unique and funny ways to poke fun at it without seeming like know-it-alls. The film finds some truly surprising ways to reach its third act which is essentially an all-out 80s slasher homage and I absolutely loved it. Taissa Farmiga is wonderful in the role of Max, who is the more quiet and timid of the group whereas the others feel like they are ripped straight out of a Friday the 13th film.

Farmiga has been one of my favorite actresses of all time ever since I watched her performance as Violet Harmon in American Horror Story: Murder House and this film reminds me of exactly why. With a great script, Farmiga is more than capable of holding her own. Malin Åkerman gets a shockingly emotional role here that took me by complete surprise as well. I usually don’t really like Adam DeVine in movies and, sure enough, I didn’t like him here. If you hate the douchey teen boy from 80s slasher films, he pretty much plays the exact type of character here. Interestingly enough, the film doesn’t really do much to subvert that trope.

The Final Girls isn’t a movie that you’re going to be talking about for years and it isn’t an absolute game-changer like Scream was, but it’s still a highly entertaining watch and is a strong display of witty writers and great actors at their best.