REVIEW #71 The Final Girls (2015)

The Final Girls is a parody slasher film directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson. A girl grieving the death of her mother who was a famous scream queen actress in the 1980’s, finds herself pulled into the world of her mums most famous film. The group of friends must find a way to escape this nightmare and defeat the monstrous killer.

CAST & THE ACTING 

There are actually a few well known names in this film which is what initially drew me in to give it a go. Alexander Ludwig, Nina Dobrev and Adam Devine are arguably the most well known faces despite none of them actually being the main protagonist in the film. That role was given to Taissa Farmiga who played Max. I didn’t expect great acting in this film but I was expecting it to be at least pretty funny, Adam Devine has a good track record with comedies and I think Alexander Ludwig is a great actor so I was curious to see his performance too. Unfortunately across the board it wasn’t great at all, the comedy wasn’t there and I don’t think I actually laughed at all throughout the entire film. The chemistry between the actors looked okay but I believe they were all let down by poor writing and a poor script. So unfortunately a promising cast just didn’t deliver.

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

The storyline was a little strange but pretty easy to follow, the daughter of a famous scream queen actress from the 80’s is dealing with the loss of said mother and is invited to a screening of her mums most famous film at the local cinema with her friends. A fire breaks out and suddenly they are all pulled into the movie and find themselves fighting for their lives. I assumed it was meant to be a sort of parody slasher film, which would have plenty of funny moments, I didn’t expect any real substance but just something I could sit and have a laugh at. However the writing in this film was terrible, not only was it predictable but the comedy come across as cheesy and wasn’t funny at all. Given the cast it had the potential to be a really good parody film but it almost seemed like they were caught in two minds, create a genuine slasher comedy film or create a parody and because of that they didn’t achieve either. So really poor in this category!

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

The cinematography was probably the best thing in the film, I’m not saying it was great but it was good enough. The night sequences where they were being hunted by the slasher created some pretty good visuals and the final fight scene in particular looked pretty good. There wasn’t many effects but the one instance that comes to mind was when they transitioned from the main movie into the flashback, special effects were used to create some sort of portal type screen transition and it actually looked okay. Once in the flashback they ensured the audience understood the transition by switching to black and white which is pretty simple but done the job it was intended too. It was set in an 80’s summer camp and the props and settings looked convincing enough and they also included the contrast of having the protagonists and her friends in modern clothes and the camp councillors in 80’s get up. Overall this category was probably where the film performed best.

OVERALL  (3.5/10)

This was a terrible film, I didn’t have high expectations I just wanted to watch a film and have a couple of laughs without thinking to much about the plot. Unfortunately the comedy wasn’t executed well at all and it just come across cheesy, I don’t think I laughed once throughout the entire film. The cast was good but the acting wasn’t great and I do feel like they were seriously let down by the writing and the script. The only positive thing to talk about was the cinematography and effects where they actually done a pretty good job but it wasn’t good enough to redeem any sort of respectable score. I wouldn’t recommend this film, there are plenty of other films that would do a better job at making you laugh!

Thanks for reading.

Callan