The Final Girls starts with a cold opening, one of a quick and traumatic event after making us smile, like many of the best films do. A daughter loses her mother, who happened to be an actress in a popular horror film in the 80s. To help get over the process, Max goes to a local screening of Camp Bloodbath, due to pressure from a friend and the fanatic fanbase.
Due to a series of events in the audience that resembles MouseTrap, the cinema lights on fire. Everyone panics and runs around screaming, worried that they’ll be burned alive. Quickly, they cut a whole through the screen and climb through, looking for an emergency exit.
Instead they awake in a field, near Camp Bloodbath – well, not near it, exactly, more like inside the film.
The film quickly plays with the power that a film within a film possesses. This doesn’t get tiring because we are quickly thrown into the adventure. It’s refreshing to watch a horror film be smart and not tease the audience. It shows that the characters are realistic film fanatics, and are better than just running off aimlessly in stupid directions, avoiding becoming eye-rolling deaths and characters that deserved to die for not knowing better.
The cinematography is also outstanding. When there was meant to be tense scenes, I found myself staring over the chase and into the amazing colours led by unique filters. Each colour popped on the screen, like it was chasing us across the film, impressing each time.
There are still deaths though, the body count racks up higher and higher until the true final girl is chosen, and it’s not the one Camp Bloodbath planned originally.
The only issue with The Final Girls is a simple one for a horror film: it’s not scary. Maybe it’s meant to be purely a homage rather than something to make us clutch the blankets over our head, worried that someone’s going to be at the door.
That said, every moment is purely enjoyable. It may not be the film to recommend for people looking to get scared, but people looking for some good cinematography, fresh filmmaking and a play on the genre will certainly enjoy this Cabin In The Woods starter kit.
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