The potential that The Final Girls (theaters, streaming, on-demand October 9th) seems to suggest goes beyond parody or homage and, leveraging mechanics borrowed from science fiction, actually uses the horror motif to birth a new experience in a unique genre that has few other entries.
Off the top of my head, Stay Tuned and Pleasantville are a couple examples of movies where entertainment becomes a viable dimension, while television’s Supernatural has toyed with the concept, using various approaches (coming at it from inside and outside!), in several episodes to fantastic effect. [At this point, I took off on a tangent about one of my unexpected all-time favorite examples of this—but it went on a touch longer than I’d imagined, so I’ve scooched it down to the bottom here. I do think it’s relevant and really expands on the potential covered here. I finally summarize with:] Bottom line; the conceit possible here is a still-fresh existential exploration of the meaning—while also testing the limits of functionality!—behind our very existence on an individual level. . . and that’s freakin’ exciting.
My reactions to the trailer alone are already leaping around the emotional spectrum. Is it possible that these filmmakers are able to tap genuine emotional moments within their “lightly sci-fi” parody of a horror film homage? Could this be another level of intelligent creative force such as Community and Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon has been safeguarding as of late? The only bigger thing I see on director Todd Strauss-Schulson’s resume up to this point is A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, which means he’s pretty much unproven at the moment. Maybe unlike some in Hollywood, I find this very exciting—do we have here an emerging voice about to burst on the scene? My fingers are crossed.
The cast looks pretty darn decent with a couple existing genre entertainment favorites, Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries) and Malin Akerman (Watchmen), as well as a few comedy heavy-hitters that have been making names for themselves recently, Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Adam DeVine (Pitch Perfect, ModernFamily) and Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley), while the rest of the cast looks like some talented rising stars without a bad apple in the bunch.
Could the “feel good horror movie of the year” literally have it all?—horror, hilarity and genuine feeling stuffed in a clever wrapper with a side welcomed cheesy? I say we find out together!
The Part Where I Go off on a Fitting Tangent I Hope You’ll Enjoy:
One of my favorite examples, because I never saw it coming and it fit a square story peg in a round show hole better than could ever be expected, happened on the sitcom ‘Til Death. Actually, I don’t think anyone ever saw it. . . period. I only ran across it because I was working at that time to get the episodes up on iTunes. What sets this example apart is that it directly includes the viewer in on the event. If you never saw the show—and, according to ratings, few did—it was the story of a married couple (Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher) who were bitterly holding on to their marriage “til death,” putting up with each other, their struggling twenty-something daughter (several actresses, including Krysten Ritter) and the dope she married (wonderfully played by Timm Sharp). That’s a broad stroke because I was never really watching either until the daughter’s husband, who she lived with in a trailer, parked in the backyard. . . started seeing the set! Like he would point out the lighting rigs, reference the boom mics and talk about the set props! It was brilliant!
At one point he references there was like four different actress that had played his girlfriend/wife over the years! He laments not being able to have sex because the scene always cuts away just as it’s starting! He could see beyond the forth wall but it wasn’t violating the reality for any of the other characters who convinced him to start seeing a therapist (Mayim Bialik, who’s acknowledged as having played Blossom!).
It was some of the most innovative television I’ve ever seen and the flashy hook was deftly used by the writers to explore the nature of reality, acceptance and what the meaning of life could be—the promise of science-fiction as a tool of revelation crammed into a dying goofy sitcom that wouldn’t see another season! (If you ever want to see this for yourself, seek out only season 4. The previous seasons were trying all the standard attempts to save a sitcom that never should’ve been. That last season found a fantastic world on the very far side of jumping the shark.) It’s one of the greatest events I’ve ever witnessed and a lot of fuel behind why I’m so excited about what the filmmakers could pull off with The Final Girls.