7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
A young woman grieving the loss of her mother, a famous scream queen from the 1980s, finds herself pulled into the world of her mom's most famous movie. Reunited, the women must fight off the film's maniacal killer.
Starring: Taissa Farmiga, Malin Akerman, Alexander Ludwig, Nina Dobrev, Alia ShawkatHorror | 100% |
Teen | 10% |
Dark humor | 5% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.38:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48 kHz, 16-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai track is also 640 kbps
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Thai
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Retro-styled Horror movies -- Slasher flicks that hearken back to the 1980s heyday of Jason, Freddy, and Michael -- seem like a growing trend at the moment. Movies like Lost After Dark are leading the charge in the return to the simpler pleasures of hack-and-slash violence and hormonal teenagers winding up on the wrong side of a sharp object. But forcing the issue isn't a formula for success, as Lost After Dark proved. It takes more. It takes love and appreciation, not just a mask and a machete. Enter The Final Girls, a lovingly created 80s-themed Slasher flick that doesn't just recall the era, it inhabits it. Like, really inhabits it, as in 2015 winds up transplanted into 1980-something. It's a spunky and spirited film that understands its charge and blends classic genre motifs and modern fandom with ease.
The Final Girls lacks the filmic, grainy texture of its 80s brethren, opting instead for a smooth digital shoot, but the results still satisfy. An amber tint dominates much of the movie, yielding mildly golden flesh tones. Colors transition to a brighter, more consistently cheerful appearance as the action shifts into Camp Bloodbath where natural greens are vibrantly diverse and various camp attire and accents jump off the screen. Details are exacting, revealing flowing hair, intimate skin and clothing details, vegetation, the killer's mask, and other broad and intimate elements alike with incredible precision and clarity. Black levels are deep and rich. Trace amounts of banding are visible in a few shots but noise, macroblocking, aliasing, and other unwanted intrusions are nowhere to be found. Several black-and-white segments seen when Camp Bloodbath transitions to a scene from the 1950s yield the same glossy digital texture but the grayscale appears precise.
The Final Girls features a splendid DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Music is robust and rich, yielding seamless stage immersion, precision clarity, and hefty bass even through the more complexly chaotic synth-style beats that hammer through the listening area in the film's most perilous moments. The imitation "ki, ki, ki; ma, ma, ma" drifts nicely about the stage in all its airy, foreboding glory. Various sounds of violence are well defined, whether a rolling, crunching car or screaming victims. Natural ambient effects fill the stage with regularity, particularly the sounds of nature heard outside the camp, such as insects and deep rolling thunder. Dialogue is filmily positioned in the front-center and enjoys consistent prioritization and vocal definition.
The Final Girls contains two commentary tracks; a handful of deleted, extended, and alternate scenes; and some special effects features.
The Final Girls blends nostalgia trip with self-awareness in a Last Action Hero-like time capsule of a movie that takes classic 80's Horror stylings and brings a handful of hungry fans and a lead character with a connection to the movie into the retro world of summer camp hack-and-slash. It's hardly brilliant but it's very well done, capturing not only the broader essence of a favorite genre but understanding what it means to be a fan, just taken here from one side of the screen to another. Horror hounds should love this, and anyone even passably familiar with 80s Slasher trope should find it at least passably enjoyable. Sony's Blu-ray release of The Final Girls features excellent video and audio to go along with a satisfying assortment of extra content. Highly recommended.
Unrated
2018
2019
2015
2013
Slipcover in Original Pressing
2015
2010
Collector's Edition
1988
2011
2022
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1980
2011
2018
2023
1983
The Horror Star
1983
2022
2015
1982
2000
1985