FINALly, a good Horror Comedy! Today's Film is The Final Girls, a 2015 Horror-Comedy that goes all META on our asses! The Film is about some people who end up getting sucked into a Horror Film. Naturally, laughs ensue. On the plus side, it is not Midnight Movie. It comes to us from the Director of...alot of stuff I haven't seen, but also the last Harold & Kumar Film. One of the 2 Writers actually has some good Horror Credentials though, so that's something. The Screenplay comes to us from Joshua John Miller, a Child Actor from a number of notable Films. He was in Halloween III and was the Child-looking Vampire in Near Dark! He was also in Teen Witch, Class of 1999, Death Warrant and Meet the Hollowheads- that's more interesting to me though. Aside from just that, his Mother was in such Films as Necromancy and Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill, while his Father played 'Father Karras' in The Exorcist and Exorcist III. This inspired him to create a key Plot Point in the Film...which I will discuss later. The Film is full of people you may or may not recognize such as Adam Devine, Thomas Middleditch and Malin Akerman. To find out (without SPOILERS) why this one may be a hidden gem, read on...
This woman- Ackerman- was in a Friday the 13th-style Film called Camp Bloodbath.
Years later, she has a grown up Daughter who begrudgingly attends a Screening of the Film on a bad Anniversary.
A fire breaks out, leading to our Heroes trying to make an Exit through the Door behind the Screen.
However, this backfires in an odd way as they are now IN the Film! Why couldn't it be Baywatch- The Movie: Forbidden Paradise?!?
The Film-within-the-Film features a killer named Billy- who's more like the guy in The Burning!- who isn't quite sure what to do with these new people, but you can bet that his default action is killing!
Can our knowing Heroes survive a Film full of dumb people, a killer and this very-slutty girl?
Here's the rub: our Heroine is conflicted about escaping the Film since her Mother is here...and she is dead in the real world.
They have to make a plan to escape and take out Billy all the same. Can they do it...
...or will Billy prove to be the world's toughest burn victim? To find out, watch the Film.
Good, funny stuff. I didn't go into this one with very high expectations and was pleasantly-surprised with the results. Horror Comedies are so much harder to do than people think. I've ranted and raved about this subject a number of times, so let's skip it. Sufficed to say, this one turned out to be really good. The Humor comes from its bizarre and funny Characters. The overall situation is still Horror, so you don't really lose that. It is a tricky balance, yes, but they manage it pretty well. It still tends to skew more towards Comedy than Horror, so bear that in mind. The Cast all does a great job with their Roles here. Half of them are playing the Cliche Roles of 1980s Horror Films, while the other half actually turn out to be fairly-deep Characters. The biggest surprise here is the actual sentiment that they manage to work into the Story. Supposed Miller was inspired by the idea that he could see his Father in Films, even if he actually died in 2001. There was apparently some disputes between certain Distributors as to what kind of content would be in the Film. One of them wanted the Film to be Rated R, but lose the whole Sub-Plot with the Mother. The one that finally let us see the Film let them keep the important Sub-Plot, but cut the Film down to a PG-13. The end result worked out quite well, so I guess I can't complain. The Film has all sorts of great sight gags and bits that I wouldn't dare SPOIL. If you like the Slasher Genre and can laugh at it, I highly-recommend this one. If nothing else, it will hold you over until an actual Friday the 13th comes out...
Next up, I cross the seas for a Horror-Comedy Import. Will it be able to keep the streak alive? Stay tuned...
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