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Oct 08, 2015 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

Max (Taissa Farmiga) is the daughter of ‘80s screen queen Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman), star of the cheesy slasher film Camp Bloodbath. She’s dragged to a late-night screening at the behest of her friends; when the movie theater catches fire, their only escape is through the screen—and into the movie itself. The teenagers mysteriously find themselves living out the horror flick. Max uses the opportunity to re-connect with her late mother (or, at least, her mother’s most famous character) while the teens do their best to avoid being hacked to pieces by the masked, machete-wielding maniac who stalks the campers.

Todd Strauss-Schulson’s parody isn’t as clever as other meta horror-comedies—Scream and Cabin in the Woods come to mind—but slasher devotees will find plenty to like. The Final Girls sends up most of the tropes that make Friday the 13^th, Sleepaway Camp, and their vintage rip-offs such guilty pleasures, but its best gimmick was making all of the filmic elements—from subtitles, to black and white flashbacks, to rating screens—totally diegetic, turning them into physical obstacles the characters muost overcome. Watching a character smash into an on-screen title is an unexpected hoot.

Author rating: 5.5/10