Back in 1996, when director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson unleashed the first instalment of the Scream franchise on cinema audiences everywhere, the movie was declared to be just the shot in the arm that the horror genre needed. Dripping with post-modernism and oozing self-awareness, that film succeeded in drawing fresh blood into the horror movie fold. There have been many pretenders to the Scream throne in the intervening two decades, but it seems that one particular set of filmmakers has finally got the recipe right – and we can see proof of that fact in the new trailer for the upcoming horror comedy, The Final Girls.
The filmmakers in question are director Todd Strauss-Schulson (A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas), and writers M.A Fortin and Joshua John Miller – here making their feature length debut. This trio appear to have created a comedic horror film so smart and funny, that they have perhaps succeeded in consigning Scream to the bargain bin of eternity, once and for all. In this preview footage alone, there are hat-tips and nods to everything from Friday The 13th, to The Last Action Hero, and even to Scream itself. When the satirical-genre-take parodies its satirical-genre-take predecessor, that’s when you know you have hit the satirical-genre-take mother lode.
“The Final Girls is an unconventional comedy about Max, a high school senior, who is mysteriously transported with her friends into a 1980s horror film that starred Max’s mother – a celebrated scream queen. Trapped inside the movie, Max finds herself reunited with her mom, who she lost in real life. Together with Max’s friends, they must fend off the camp counsellor’s raging hormones, battle a deranged machete-wielding killer, and find a way to escape the movie and make it back home.”
The Final Girls stars Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story), Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries), Malin Akerman (The Comeback), Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Adam Devine (Workaholics), Chloe Bridges (Pretty Little Liars), and Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley) – which gives clear indication that the emphasis here is on the laughs, as much as on the horror. Notably, while it is certainly a female-led film, it is one of the least racially diverse casts heading for cinemas in the coming months. It remains to be seen whether this is intended to form a conscious part of the satirical take on 1980s horror films, or not.
Having premiered at SXSW 2015 earlier this year to praise from our own Matt Donato, The Final Girls (not to be confused with the upcoming Final Girl) was heaped with critical acclaim, and this is expected to continue when it screens as part of the Midnight Madness section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Beyond that, the film is slated for an October release – in time for Halloween, of course.
