10 Slasher Movies That Broke All The Rules
1. The Final Girls
2015 was a great time to take satirical aim at slasher flicks. MTV’s Scream series and Scream Queens from super-producer Ryan Murphy both simultaneously parodied and paid homage to the horror genre institution, whilst everything from the aforementioned Dude Bro Party Massacre III to L.A Slasher to Tyler Shields’ feature debut Final Girl sent cinematic body blows into the slasher’s slumped remains.
None of the above, however, managed to repeat the impressive trick of The Final Girls, which combined a nostalgic spoof eighties slashers with, of all things, a tender, surprisingly heartfelt mother/daughter dramedy. The resultant flick bounces between broad comedy and poignant scenes between Malin Akerman’s exuberant starlet and American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga as her wallflower daughter with panache, and manages to make a striptease set to Bette Davis Eyes’ into one of horror’s most life-affirming moments (yes, really).
It’s a testament to A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas helmer Todd Strauss-Schulson that the film is able to balance such contrasting tones and moods, but the flick succeeds, providing inarguable proof of the endless potential inherent in the simple slasher formula in the process.