186: The Final Girls (2015)

SPEAKER_05 0:04

Pretty much I just saw myself in this movie. I did want to see my reflection, and fuck that.

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Maybe we're dead and this is heaven. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are horror movie review podcasts dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack. A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the gore lover Alexis. You get laid and then you die. The cowardly creeper Ryan, you came back. Yay! And the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Their hair is so flat, it's making me sad.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

The people have spoken this week, and our patrons have decided we're covering a 2015 horror comedy. Before we get down to all the laughs, though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Our follow-up this week is about a movie that is so not horror that it verges on comedy, and that's Sphere.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

I thought it was a very serious movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

It was serious, but seriously horror, debatable. But nonetheless, we wanted to hear what our listeners thought about Max Pick for the co-host Clash, because it did win and they did vote for it. The results are in, and only 29% of our listeners gave it a hack, and 71% slashed it.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

What an overwhelming success. What a positive thing to say.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

But I think the most important standout from that episode actually came in our B sides, in which we talked about a question from one of our patrons, Rob, and Rob has some follow-up for us. He said, I'm honored that my question was chosen for this episode. However, I'm less than thrilled that no one sided with me in considering The Shape of Water a horror movie. Paris went so far as to say it's not a good movie, and it's my favorite movie of all time. I feel betrayed by you all, except Ryan, who of course hasn't seen it.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

I'd like to point out that I strategically tiptoed an opinion on the Shape of Water being a horror movie because I have not seen it either.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Listen, you all know I'm here for nothing if not to not insult our listeners based on their favorites, usually. And Paris is here for the opposite.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Sometimes you be insulting. I do be, but I don't mean to be, and often if I haven't seen it, it basically here's what it is. I either haven't seen it and therefore have no opinion, or have seen it and have a strong opinion that you might not like.

SPEAKER_05 2:25

The insults go from number one being Paris and then no kidding, you're very close second.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

Am I? Yes. Yeah. So I decided that what I'm gonna do is share our hack and slash average in the end of your episode. Because I can tally very easily and figured out how to rate the number of hacks you've given and the number of slashes you've given. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

I would like to make a bet for one dollar that I will be close to a 50% hack, 50% slash ratio.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Well, that's a really subjective word. Close.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Close, within 10. Between between 60 and 40. Less than less than you know what I'm trying to say? Oh no. I think you need to have a more narrow margin than that.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah, that's a wide net.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Okay, we'll do a five percent, we'll do a five percent margin around fifty percent. Okay? Five more or five less.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

I'll take that bet. I think a dollar is something I can handle losing.

SPEAKER_05 3:20

It's in your Venmo account, and I'm sure it's there.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Okay, but wait, the reason I wanted to talk about this comment is because I actually talked to Rob on Twitter, I think it was, and he explained that like all of the other movies of the same like monster genre have always been horror, like Dracula, that werewolf one.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

The Wolfman. American Werewolf in London. Different one. The wolfman is original.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

I think the one Chris meant. And then Creature of the Black Lagoon. And I think what has happened in the culture is that we have grown so desensitized that a woman fucking uh ocean man is not as horrific as it once was, I think partially because of furries. But that movie is very much framed as like a romance, and you're kind of supposed to be rooting for those two characters to hook up.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Also, as part of our follow-up, we'd like to thank two of our newest patrons who joined us during our new blood drive. Thank you so much, Amber and Matt. We can't wait to hear more from you in the future. If you want, give us a call at the Hackerslash Hotline, send us a message, and we'll be happy to share it on our new episodes. And that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Welcome to the party to those two new patrons, Amber Matt. We're so excited to have you, and we're so excited that you participated in the voting this month. Our patron nominations this month included three slashers and a 2019 psychological horror film. This was a tight race most of the way, and several folks are showing love and high praise for nearly all of the films, but we did have a clear winner. And it's a film that's actually co-written by Joshua John Miller, whose dad played Father Karis in The Exorcist. Miller conceptualized and wrote the film as a way of dealing with the death of his own father, and in the end, turned out a movie where a young woman and her friends are dropped into the world of a cult classic Katie Slasher film, a film in which her mother, now dead, starred years ago. This week, thanks to a majority 44% of the overall patron vote, we're talking about the final girls.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Yes, and I have two comments from our patrons who helped choose this movie. So one is Alex Poet, who says, The Final Girls is a great spoof of an 80 slasher. I'm glad it's winning so far. If you can get behind a comedy horror like Leslie Vernon, then you can get behind the final girls. That's what she said. Happy voting, slashers. Classic Ryan. Can't let a good moment go. I really cannot. And then we also had MJ who said, just watched The Final Girls. Very interested to see you guys talk about the success of its comedy, since I know the panel has very different opinions about comedy and horror, and I could not agree more.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Well, buckle up and enjoy the ride, MJ, because this week we're talking about the Final Girls, and we gotta know who's seen this one before tonight.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

I'm gonna be quite honest with you, I've never even heard of this movie, so I'm excited for this.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

I also hadn't seen this movie, and although that's not surprising at all, I hadn't heard of it, and I didn't know what to expect because of the name The Final Girls. I wasn't really excited about it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 6:07

So I had actually seen this movie before, and I think I watched it last year or maybe the year prior. But I don't know how I caught wind of it. It was on like some streaming service, and the algorithm recommended it to me because it knows what I like. And I watched it, I think, with my boyfriend at home.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

So I thought I had actually seen this before, but I realized I watched something that was tangentially related and that I'm gonna have to hunt down on Tubi. But I heard about this film and I heard about the concept behind it, and I was really, really excited about it. There's a soft spot in my heart for movies about moms. I find the inevitable march of time and the reality that we will all lose our mothers one day to be a heartbreaking thing that I can't really acknowledge or contend with and grasp. So I expected this to be an emotional movie alongside being like a solid comedy. I've heard incredible things about it, but one of the things was a listener writing to us on Instagram saying The Final Girls brings the laugh and the tears. And I was like, I'm ready to feel because I thought I was ready to get into it. But having watched it on the other side, I I was not ready, it turns out.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah, Chris, this is one of those things I think everyone can align with is we really don't want to consider the mortality of things on this earth. I didn't know I was going into a comedy, so I actually didn't expect to like this movie because I just don't care about the like general excitement over like who is a final girl and stuff like that. So just seeing the title, I was like, okay, I this doesn't mean anything to me in most movies, much less a movie that's specifically based around it. So I I went in honestly, expecting to hate this. Hate? That's such a strong word.

SPEAKER_05 7:48

Okay, well, dislike, but you know what I mean. I mean, kind of. I don't know if the you know cover art gave it away for me, but they had so many people that I was like, this has to be some sort of comedy, obviously to an AD slasher, the way everyone was dressed up, and I kind of read a little bit of the information about it, so I knew what to expect, but I don't think I knew the extent to what I was gonna be watching.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

So I may have mentioned this on the pod before, but there's a book called The Final Girls that I've read that I really enjoyed. And when I remember seeing this on whatever platform I found it on, I remember being like, oh my god, did they make this into a movie? And I had no idea. Fantastic. And then I clicked on it and I was like, I don't think this is the same because of how many comedic actors are in this, but I still had hope because I was like, oh, this feels like something that might be tailor-made for me.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

But I know that experience went a little bit sour for you the first time you watched this, right, Paris?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, I was actually a little bit disappointed, and I think that was because I had so many different expectations, and it wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be. So this time when I went to it, I was like, okay, I know what I'm in for, and I'm open to being surprised without all these preconceived notions of like what I'm hoping to get into.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Do you think you've grown as a person in respect to horror comedy?

SPEAKER_01 9:08

In the course of like a year or two, probably not.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

You don't think so? I feel like we've been exposed to like so many more different versions.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Oh, although I'm a fan of horror comedy. I usually well, no. Horror comedy is hit or miss for me.

SPEAKER_05 9:21

It's hard. No, I agree. There's been parody, there's been tribute. It's, you know, comedy and horror can just come from a lot of different ways. And while watching this movie, it was just fun. Like, I'm pretty sure I said to myself, because I kind of go through the questions and how I am going to talk about the movie on the podcast, and that's what really hit the nail on the head for me was this was a fun ride.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Yeah, I can agree with that. I think it's an interesting way that this goes about. Because I'm comparing this to uh something we just recently watched, which is Slumber Party Massacre, which is clearly a joke, and this is a joke, and I'm trying to figure out like what makes this one feel different for me, and I can't quite put my finger on it, but it does. And I think it's like I know it's a joke from the beginning, even without been being prepared for that. So something about the way this movie starts, something about the way they do it, just put me in the mood to have a good time. And I would say that I did. I I think I was pretty entertained the whole time. I wouldn't say I had any like strong connections aside from wanting to cry about moms, but you know, everybody wants to cry about moms when given the opportunity, so that doesn't really count for much.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

No? Do you not always want to cry for moms? We'll talk about in the character section, but um there's something about our main character that I just really dislike, so I cannot get emotional in this movie at all.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Ooh, no, this was jam-packed full of emotion for me. I felt so many things, but I think the best way to you know some summarize how I was feeling was this relief that it wasn't just the sadness and overwhelming sadness that I think I expected to feel. Even though I uh I cried a lot more than I expected to, this movie walked a fine line, and I expected it to be way more sad and way less uplifting. And that was a really healthy balance for me, and I love learning about the origins of the story and why it was written the way that it did, and to know that you know, you have a writer who lost his father, his father is immortalized in a cult classic, is probably asked about this all the time. How do you cope with that? How do you grieve that and mourn that loss and still be able to look at these films? And I think that's one of the things that really stood out to me. Like when this movie starts, I was laughing so much, looking at how they're parodying Friday the 13th and other camp slashers. There's a moment where they say, They won't be singing kumbaya, they'll be singing kumbay no, and that was hilarious to me. But then immediately it drops us into this emotional, like, but look at these two, look at a mom and her daughter, and let's get to know them before you know what's gonna happen happens. And the way they build that was really interesting to me. It w it was unexpected. I thought we were gonna start with one thing having already happened, and we get to actually see a lot more than I expected. It was a surprise.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Yeah, Chris, I was definitely thinking about you during the emotional parts, especially towards the end. I was like, ooh, I know Chris is crying right now. Oh, I cried so much.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Really?

SPEAKER_03 12:31

Yeah, I'm not ashamed to say it. Absolutely. She's our sweet little bean, don't you know?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

She also does always like get choked up by like the thought of like anybody in her family dying.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

Absolutely. It's the one true thing I actually fear. It is a really real thing. It is a real thing, Ryan. And I I knew that we'd be dealing right with the loss of loved ones in this film, but again, like I expected this to either be way too depressing or way too funny to strike that balance. So I think even about Fear Street 1978, Alexis and I were talking about how emotional that movie was when we think about Family Dynamic and Sisters. And I I would I would think, right, that had this movie gone a little bit more on one side or the other, it would have been a really sour taste in my mouth. But they watched a really fine line that honestly, I was really surprised that they managed to to keep me engaged on both the comedy and the emotional side without beating me over the head with it.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

Yeah, the comedy hit well for me. It wasn't cheesy and it paid off so well, and especially paying tribute to a lot of slasher classics and honestly a lot of tropes in the horror genre, which I thought was great because I was surprised at how bad it can be in some movies that we've seen. So you're more laughing at the movie than you are with the characters and with the movie, like you are in this.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Alexis, I have to agree with you. I honestly I kind of agree with both you and Chris. The two biggest things for me are how well they balance this movie with the comedy and the horror and the emotions all at the same time. I mean, maybe, maybe it's a little light on the horror, but the comedy and very serious topics are very hard to pull off and they did it really well. And then the way the comedy itself works is surprising as a person who generally doesn't think it's funny when movies are trying to be funny, I think overall, but especially in horror. So those things really blew me away because once I was watching it and realized, oh, this is like a a joke, right? Like I'm I I need to have a good time here. I was like not thinking, I already didn't think I was gonna like it, and then it just compounded where I was like, oh gosh, this is not gonna be my thing. And it just does something so different from other things that we've seen. It's almost like Tuckerdale versus Evil level of comedy. Not the same style of movie, but it's like that level of like it works in that way.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

I really need to get us to rewind Behind the Mask, The Rise of Leslie Vernon. I really feel like you would both appreciate, even if you don't like the movie overall, I feel like you would both appreciate this the approach and style of comedy in that film.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

It has been on my list since you explained it to me, Chris.

SPEAKER_05 15:11

Oh yeah, I totally agree with you, Chris. It's such a great movie, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Now, like everyone's saying, I was also surprised by the comedy in this movie, specifically like the number of comedy powerhouses that are in this cast. And I'd already seen this, and I like forgot these people were in this, and I watched it again, I was like, oh yeah, it's him and her and him. Oh my god, how did I forget this? And I think that's because the comedy is sometimes very funny, but then also sometimes kind of almost cringe. Like the writing, I feel like needed some work, but the improv when the actors are really going for it, I think is when it shines the most with the comedy.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

But Paris, the thing that's really cool is that they can use the setting of themselves as the excuse for bad writing, which is hilarious. Because that's the thing I'm always saying when y'all are like, oh, it's candy. I'm like, okay, it's horrible writing andor acting, and it's hilarious to see them in this movie be able to say, Oh, the writing needs some work. Like, yeah, it does. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Okay, but I feel like certain characters were written poorly on purpose, and other characters were written poorly unintentionally.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

I see, I love that those layers to that, Ryan. You're right. When you have some of these characters, especially the the past characters, right? The ones that were like very much within this 80s slasher. It's so captivating to sit back and just like let yourself fall into and absorb the layers of meta in this movie. It's solid from top to bottom. I did discover a thing that I didn't realize was a thing before. There's the guy in this movie, Adam Devine. He's a modern family. He's also in Pitch Perfect, he's been in a number of things.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Also controversially hot in my book. And this will come back in the B sides.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

Okay. Okay. I have liked him in everything that I've seen him in until this. He was a sour note for me and a huge disappointment.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Well, I I agree. I think there's one thing that's like particularly over-the-line sour, but also he is meant to play the really disgusting, hateful man in the 80s lasher.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

I don't object to the character that he was playing. I object to his performance of the character. Really? Yeah. I know that he plays into that character, and I don't think like his portrayal of that character is bad. I just did not enjoy the experience of him on screen. Some of his ad libbing, fantastic, and like what he was saying was funny, but it's the whole experience of him in this movie. He didn't feel like the right fit for me. Isn't that how we feel about all the men in 80 slashers, though, you know? None quite like him. I think because I see him as a lovable buffoon, so I can't take him seriously as the douchebag.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Even if he technically nails the nails it right with like saying the types of things, walking the walk, talking the talk, etc. Even if he like on paper nails it, it is so disconnected for me that I just do not enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Did the bloopers change that feeling for you at all?

SPEAKER_03 18:14

No, he look again, he looks like a fun guy and a fun time, but it does not change my experience of the movie. Because you have to wait to the end to get to the bloopers, and it doesn't justify all that. Like it was painful.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Oh yeah, I did not watch the bloopers. I famously turned things off as soon as the credits. Oh my god, really? Same.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Oh, I'm such a sucker for bloopers. If you give me any kind of footage, B-roll or otherwise, in the ending credits, I am staying until the end.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

That's all our B sides are, really. It's gotta start playing immediately, or I'm turning it off. I turn it off.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

I did. It was so immediate.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Oh, I uh literally I turned it off immediately. She didn't even get to the last frame, honestly. Sometimes I turn things off before they like fully end, especially like podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

You're like, I can see where this is going. I'm done here.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah, I got it. I get it.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

There's gonna be credits here. Got it. There was one moment he had with another modern character that like I cringed a little bit, but then thought was hilarious. And there was there was that moment of like comedic gold for me where I feel like his performance was just chef's kiss, but beyond that, it was rough.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Well, while most of those things were surprising, what isn't surprising is that this horror comedy is not even a little bit scary. Not even like you might think about it ever again, scary.

SPEAKER_05 19:28

Yeah, and I don't necessarily think that the antagonist is scary either. I and you don't see him a lot on film, so that also takes away everything from the fright factor of this movie.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yeah, I think that's fair to say. I don't think this movie will be mad at us for saying it wasn't scary. The killer was all but disposable, I feel like, and the comedy is really what they were focusing on.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Well, the fear of leaving things unsaid to a loved one before they tragically die.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

That is what this movie's really about.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Not the inevitable march of time.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

It is. You know how it's terrifying to sit back and realize that if nature runs its course with life expectancies, you're gonna be the one last one standing in your family.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

I am so at peace with that.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

I'm not yet.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Alternatively, uh an even scarier fear possibly is that you could just disappear anytime and we're all just here, and your stuff's still here, and all the people that knew you were here, but you're not here. If you want to go that route.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

No, a hundred percent. It's tragic either way, right? It's absolutely tragic and terrifying how quickly life can be extinguished. And I think for me, obviously this movie isn't scary, but I think what I fear is being in Max's situation, having a really sudden loss that you don't know how to cope with, and then having to be forced to like have that shoved in your face and confront it, and you're trying to make peace with it and heal as you go, but then realizing that you haven't let go. So I'll I'll I'll be real with you. I was really, really close to uh my grandfather on my mother's side, and we used to hang out all the time. He'd come watch Andy Griffith while he babysat me every once in a while. We go to baseball games together, it was a great time, and I didn't say goodbye to him the last time he went to Puerto Rico because they would like spend months there. He was out mowing the lawn, you know, it was raining, he had a stroke, he got pneumonia, and he died in Puerto Rico, and I never said goodbye to him. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't even like say it against say I love you one last time. I still that happened when I was like 15. I still am not at peace with that. So this movie hits some really deeply emotional things that like I think if you are a person like me, you're not gonna be scared of this movie, but I think it will have you thinking about things that you're not gonna want to be thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Sure, it's definitely got the emotional things. It's not an unemotional movie, and it's not one of the things where all of us are like. Like, Chris, what are you talking about? There was nothing to feel here. It's certainly not that. There is a lot to feel. But at the same time, I would recommend not spending a lot of time considering these fears because they don't make you feel any better about life. It's really great to just go on pretending like everyone exists forever.

SPEAKER_03 22:16

Everybody copes in different ways.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

I think we can all agree though, and I might be wrong, but this movie definitely gets originality points.

SPEAKER_05 22:24

100%. Yes. In my notes, I did write an updated version of Behind the Mask, The Rise of Leslie Vernon. But then I also said it's obviously very Friday the 13th. Then you got, you know, these scenes where it's very Halloween-esque and another scene from The Burning and Did something though that made it original. It felt familiar and it felt good, but it did something new that was entertaining.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

So this movie is funny for sure, but it's very different from behind the mask, The Rise of Leslie Vernon. I think if you can admire the quality and the meta of things, then yes, but even like the frames of those stories are totally, totally different. I love that this movie reminded me of Pleasantville, where you suddenly get dropped in a completely different thing. You have to figure out what the hell is going on and how do you get through this? I love that it did that while also pulling in some emotional chords while also being a meta love letter to slashers as a whole. I think this movie is a very unique blend of those three things.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

I have to agree, and I also think it's important to remember this movie is made in 2015 where it's almost impossible to make original things that aren't referential to something at some point. And I think honestly that applies to the past two decades. So it can't be a hundred percent original, but it is quite original for me.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Okay, now I know I started the originality conversation and I do stand by it, but watching this movie after having just watched the Slumber Party Massacre remake made me kind of recognize a trend that's happening in modern horror where they're like, okay, everything's already been done, so let's do something completely unexpected within a standard like format of a horror movie, and now that unexpected thing is sort of becoming expected.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Not this though, not in a movie.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Right, this was super specific, but the idea of doing like taking something we are all so familiar with and then flipping it on its head has now been done about a dozen times.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Can I get a third example?

SPEAKER_01 24:33

The rise of Leslie Vernon.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

That wasn't it.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Right, but this was not a very different vibe from Slumber Party Massacre. These were actually very similar, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah, I'd agree. In their feeling.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

So obviously, this movie gets originality points. Absolutely. It's same, same for but different for Paris and Slumber Party Massacre. But I think one of the stronger parts of it is the way that it it wraps itself up. And I am actually surprised that we haven't gotten more from this. I appreciate that they m left well enough alone and gave us something that could set up for something else in the future without going too hard and pursuing that. But Ryan, I know that this does get dangerously close to something that you hate.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Oh, oh my god. Yes, it does. And I was almost upset about it, but then I was okay with it because I think it works. This is the one rare situation where I think it almost went there and it still worked.

SPEAKER_05 25:29

This movie is very different for me because I feel like in a lot of movies that I watch, the suspension of disbelief that I have is non-existent. I really don't care what happens. We've talked about this in the Saw movies, and in other movies, when our cast is like Alexis, but this doesn't make sense. A doesn't lead to B. I'm like, eh, who cares? This one, I you know, when you're in a different stream of events, I did wonder, especially in this movie, like what was gonna happen. And I don't know if I'm explaining this right, but it was just it had me wondering how this movie was gonna wrap up, and I think I was very invested. And to me, it really did pay off, and it paid off, it had its nice sugarcoat ending, in my opinion, and then it slaps you with a hey, here's another thing on the end, which I truly appreciated because what is a horror movie if it's not this thing that was on the end of it?

SPEAKER_02 26:24

What it does perfectly is toe the line of how much information they give you about how this is happening, and it's very little information, and not giving a ton of information uh keeps you wondering about how it's gonna wrap up, but doesn't get you lost in like the details of like how are they actually there? Like, don't worry about that, bro. We're just here, we gotta just trust whatever this person says, okay? Just go for it and it'll be fine. And the ending kind of like keeps that train of thought, which I'm glad because I would have been real annoyed if they wrapped this up a few other ways, like fully going with one of the things I hate the most and stuff like that. It would have been rough.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

I think that's a really good observation, Ryan. This movie does play well with the information it gives you and not giving you too much so that you can't question too much. I think the like the end of the movie is a little bit too schmaltzy for me, but the end end they kind of bring it back around and they're like, oh huh. And I was like, oh, okay, I I'm not mad.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Also, you know, little Michael Myers reference up in here.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Oh my god, I literally thought the same thing, and I did not pick up on that before I had seen how every sequel of a movie ends in a specific location.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

Or starts.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Or yeah, begins, continues in a separate location.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

Well, I am so proud. I would consider this growth that you can appreciate the Halloween connections in this film, but we have a few things to button up before we start reading this movie. Now, Alexis, the Final Girls. Sounds like there's probably some death in there. How many people died in this film?

SPEAKER_05 27:53

This is a total slasher movie, and we have 20 deaths in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Wow, really?

SPEAKER_05 27:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Oh, does that include the one scene?

SPEAKER_05 28:01

Yes, it includes the one scene.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 28:03

It happened. Twenty happened, alright.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

And what about the animal report? There's not even animals in this movie. So we're good. Just nice, clean, wholesome fun over here for the final girls from 2015. Now let's go ahead and get into our ratings. The final girls. Hackerslash.

SPEAKER_05 28:18

So I was watching this movie, and the first thing that I thought of once it wrapped up was if Paris and Chris had a love child and it was a movie, it would probably be this movie. And to me, this movie takes the best parts of what Paris likes in a movie, and the best parts of what Chris enjoys in a movie, and it meshes it really well, and it has some comedy in there. And although I couldn't relate, and I say I can't relate to the trauma that's in this movie, not particularly because I've never been in it or I'm this cold-hearted person, because I've taken an arc through this whole chapter of my life on Hackerslash. And there's movies that I've watched that have made me cry. This one didn't, but it did play on pieces of horror that I love. And the stream and the blend of comedy in this movie is great. And I think the cast is amazing, and this is just like a really great watch that I would totally watch again, probably sooner rather than later. And I can appreciate that in a movie. So this is definitely getting a slash for me.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

I don't think the feelings in this movie really get to me because I refuse to allow them because I can't live my life that way. So for me, it's like the perfect balance of elements coming together, which is horror, comedy, emotions. It all works really well here. And for me, this is a really, really simple slash in that it's just an easy watch. It's really enjoyable, it does a lot of things well, and it doesn't really bother me in a lot of ways that most horror comedies that I've seen do. I don't hate the characters. I don't like all of them, but a few of them are quite enjoyed, and like a couple of them I was like rooting for, which is rare for me. I didn't hate the setting. I enjoyed the way that they made fun of themselves. A lot of times, my beef with horror comedy is that I don't feel like they're actually making fun of themselves. I feel like they're just doing bad acting and bad writing, and we're supposed to be like, oh, it's campy. To me, this makes sense if you tell me this is campy, because it's clear, it's clear that they're like, we're making fun of this, and I enjoy it. And maybe that makes me like stupid because I don't get the other camp or I don't believe it. I just think it's bad. This works for me. So it's a slash. I I think it's like if you need a chill movie to watch, and you're okay with possibly dealing with a little bit of feelings, this is a good one.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Ryan, you mentioned being hit in the feels with this movie, and that sort of happened for me. Like being the only child of a single mom, the opening really got me, where it's kind of like you have to be the parent to your mom sometimes. And I was like, Oh, I know this very well.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Whew, amen.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

I actually thought about you too. I was like, I wonder if Ryan also relates. I think she might, but I don't want to assume.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yeah, but I turn all my feelings off. Like an oven, you gotta turn them off before you leave the house.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Which I think is why the rest of this movie didn't hit me in the feels. A lot of it I felt, like I said, was very schmaltzy, very saccharine, like overly like sweet and like sentimental. And I was like, ugh, anytime that happens, I'm like, ugh, get this off me. Like it feels like I'm like, I don't know, cobwebs that I need to shake off. And that's probably something I need to go to therapy for. But in general, this movie, it looks like it was really fun to make, and I really like the concept of exploring a horror movie in a way that's like super meta and it's very like not taking itself too seriously. But ultimately, I feel like somehow, even though the concept was good and I loved the actors, this movie ended up being somehow less than the sum of its parts in that the first time I watched it I was disappointed, and the second time I watched it, I was disappointed. The comedy, I feel like, is best when the actors are ad-libbing. I feel like the writing on this movie is not very good, and I think it's because this movie is PG 13. It feels very PG-13. It doesn't feel like particularly well written, and it's something where it is fun if you like turn your brain off, but it's not the kind of comedy that I'm necessarily into, even though some parts did make me laugh. I feel like if there is an R-rated version of this movie, it would be a slash for me. But I wanted it to be darker and I wanted it to be funnier, and this iteration is a hack.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Paris to be different.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

No, literally, the algorithm told me it was like you would like this movie, and I was like, you would think that I would like this movie, but every time I watch it, I'm like, uh, it's so close to me liking it. And what's interesting is I watched Slumber Party Massacre, even though it wasn't on that episode, and that one I would actually slash because it did enough of the things that I liked to get that from me.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Everybody was dumb. That's what you liked. Everybody was dumb, that was the thing that did it for you.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

No, that was the part I actually didn't like about that. Some of it was like very cringe. And in this movie, too, a lot of the characters in this movie were very cringe.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

All I'm saying is the Fear Street saga has a lot more PG 13 vibes to me, even though it clearly wasn't based on gore and stuff like that. But like, if we're talking about things geared for people that are younger, that feels so much more that way than this does to me. I wouldn't have ever known that this was PG 13 in my eyes. But you know what? Horror is for everyone. Everybody has their own experience. I'll let you live.

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Maybe this wasn't the baby between Chris and Paris, as I thought.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

It's like the child that I had and was like, ugh, you're my least favorite child.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Paris does famously hate kids, so.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

True.

SPEAKER_03 33:31

Or it is the child between Paris and I, except he was a neglectful father. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Yeah, I I saw this baby and I was like, I'm good, Chris. You can handle this, right?

SPEAKER_03 33:41

Which is why I would be a single mom raising this kid because this movie's a slash for me. Full circle baby. It's an easy watch, it's an emotional watch. It wasn't easy to feel feelings during this movie by any means, but I looked at this and there was so much comedy jam-packed into the self-referential. I know we all know how silly 80s horror movies can be, but it's also taking this really interesting concept of going back and processing your grief and coping with that. And I think it handles it in a different way that I wasn't expecting. I obviously knew on paper like how this was going to handle the subject matter of a girl being confronted with this opportunity to see her mom again, but I didn't expect it to go quite the way that it did in terms of how successful it was. I think what really keeps it in strong slash territory for me is the fact that I watched this movie and I saw myself in it. I saw Alexis in it, I saw Ryan in it, I saw Mac in it, and I saw Paris in it 100% of the way. Not in like the biggest moments, right? Like I didn't see a whole lot of Ryan, but there are little moments where I'm like, yeah, Ryan would do that, or Ryan would make this face in this situation, and it was great. This movie is so inoffensive to me. It didn't have to just be inoffensive, right? That would have made it mediocre, but its ability to effectively blend comedy with horror tropes with the emotional punches that this packs, it's undoubtedly a slash. And with that, the Final Girls from 2015 has earned three slashes, and Paris still hacked it. Now, you can find this movie available for rent or purchase online. Feel free to check it out. Then join us in the second half as we Unpack the Laughs Together. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

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SPEAKER_03 36:25

Alexis, what's the gore score for this film?

SPEAKER_05 36:27

Well, Paris, you are correct. This movie feels very PG13, and it's very reflective in that for the gore, because there was a lack thereof. You do see some scenes and you know some people are mangled and everything, but in general, you're not feeling after this like, wow, this is some sauce. For even, you know, Fear Street, if we're comparing the two.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Well, I don't think it's necessarily right to compare the two, but I will say, I don't feel like I missed gore in this movie. I don't know, I don't know what was happening while I was watching this, but I was never at any point like, man, I really wish I had seen more of that kill.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

I felt that at every kill.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Really?

SPEAKER_01 37:10

And I for some reason I think I remembered there being more gore in this movie than there was.

SPEAKER_05 37:14

You must have been thinking about some other movie, but not this one.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

You are probably right.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

He was thinking about the movie he had in his head when he thought about how he could make this movie better.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Yeah, I I would love a stab at this movie because it has so many great elements and it had a lot of potential, but we need an R-rated version.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, I don't know if I agree with you, Ryan. Because I think there should have been more gore. I think that would have elevated a little bit and made the antagonists a little bit more frightful, but I realize that is not the intention of this movie. So I get where they're coming from. I applaud them sticking with that because I feel like there probably might have been some critique on to add a little bit more. With these 20 kills, though, I'm sure none of us will repeat uh favorite kill though tonight. Dangerous thing to assume, my friend.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

Oh, I don't know. Bully counselor number three really did it for me. Three out of eight, I may I say.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Just in case we do overlap, I'll go first. My favorite kill, and I'm sure no one will be surprised by this, but it's Tina. For the most part, I found Tina to be very grating as a character. She felt it was too much for me. It was it wasn't my kind of dumb bitch, and I am apparently a connoisseur of dumb bitches. But seeing her really fuck up the whole operation, trip over a war a cord, and fall face first into a bear trap, and die so quickly, that is the one thing I remember about this movie, and it's probably one of my top ten favorite horror movie kills of all time because it is so quick, so funny, and so perfect for that character.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

Yep. Before we went, I said, feels like we're gonna pick the same one, and you said, No, there's no way we'll pick the same thing. But it this is the best kill of the movie, and so of course that's my favorite as well. And it comes after this freaking ridiculous dancing that's like so off-tune and there is no rhythm involved, but dang, she looks good though. You know what I'm saying? I felt like she really lived in that moment, like she took a shot of tequila before filming that and just went in for it. And I love that. And then yeah, she's just like, he's coming, and she runs, which to be fair, completely normal thing to do, and it's so fast, and it gets focused on for exactly zero seconds, which is what makes it so good to me. Because it's like, wait a minute, did she just fall into the bear trap? And they're just on to the next thing, and it just sits with you for a second. You're like, wait, what? And it's so good. That is absolutely the best kill of this movie. Don't care what the rest of you guys have to say.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Ouch. Okay. Well, sure, Tina has a really great death, but my favorite death was Kurt because I absolutely loved him flying out of that windshield, falling down, like landing on his like chest neck with his legs bent up and backwards, and behind him, it was a moment of like, so that's what he looks like. It was like a really mangled, this doesn't feel right. It's kind of like when you see someone break a bone in a movie or something, and you're like, that's not the direction your leg's supposed to go, bro. It felt like that. So for him to have been talking so much trash the whole time up to that, to suddenly be silenced in such a vicious way. I really loved it. That sounds real dark. It's okay. We like your darkness.

SPEAKER_05 40:32

I thought that was very comedic. Like it wasn't even a oh my gosh, look at this. I need to turn my head. It was more hmm. This is a very interesting kill. I'm staring at it because I'm trying to figure out what way his body is going.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

Two things that that reminded me of. It felt like I could hear a Scooby saying rut ro. And then two, I could also imagine him like a video of him flying out, landing, and then pause. Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here, and then rewinding back to everything else. That would be great.

SPEAKER_05 41:04

So I know TikTok wasn't around in 2015, obviously, but clearly it's a hit now. And there's these videos that are going around now where it's I'm trying to think of the music that it goes, but they switch it back and forth to the music and then they pull it down and then they pull it to the left, to the right, then they transition to over their head, and when they turn it back and face themselves, they're like in cute makeup, or sometimes they're in something horrific because it was around Halloween. That's my favorite trend on TikTok right now. So Blake's is my favorite because you have this whole scene and this camera spinning around, and it's very reminiscent of these TikTok movies that I'm watching. Clearly, this came first, but I really do love what they do with the camera in that scene. And to go along with that, my favorite visual of this movie has to be where they're also taking the camera, and Billy is in the house, and just seeing him looking out the window and getting these different angles, and he's on fire and jumping out, and then you see it sideways, and it's a slow motion. The synthesizers are going, which Chris, you know I am not a fan of. But in this situation, I was. It was a very modern version of the burning, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 42:25

You know that scene in slow motion was originally supposed to last three whole minutes.

SPEAKER_04 42:30

Oh, I would have died. In movie time, I feel like that's really long, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:34

It absolutely is. But it was so funny when they were like, It's slow motion. Like, what's happening? And then it kind of puts you back into that meta thing of like, oh no, no, no, they're like in a movie, right? So all of a sudden they're in slow motion and they don't know what's going on because it it's slow to us, but it's also slow to them for sure.

SPEAKER_03 42:53

This this movie I feel was pretty to look at in a lot of ways, but it was very hit or miss on some of the things it did in post. You know, we have something that happens earlier in the film, we'll talk about a little bit later in fact or fiction, but it just wasn't executed well from my perspective. Like it jarred me and pulled me out of the moment that I think I was supposed to be feeling emotionally as this is happening. But one thing that I did think was really successful was their use of color in this film. Everything when you look at the trailer and you think about them being dropped into this world, it's very technicolor. But then when we had that evening storm and looking at how crazy the sky looks, but even when Nancy, Max, and Chris are running from Billy and they're running, you know, it's a really foggy background, and you have the teal of the night sky against the warmth of their light. Some of those shots were absolutely stunning, and I love the way they emphasize that, even with the contrast of going back to black and white and the flashbacks, and then coming back into this color colorful world, each distinct moment in time. Present day in the theater and leading up to it, the world within the film, and then even the use of flashbacks, it uses colors so differently. I thought that was absolutely brilliant. Chris, you are so right.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

I feel like this movie visually sets itself apart, and I think that's part of what makes me enjoy it as much as I did. I have a few different things that I really enjoyed. My absolute favorite visual element, which I think is gonna be pretty obvious, is the use of text as like an actual object.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Ugh.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

So freaking good. They do it once with Welcome to Camp Bloodbath, and it's like this big object in the sky, and it's kind of an interesting thing. But nothing moves, right? Nothing interacts with it. And then as you continue, you start to interact with like the titles and the you know, the the the flashback scene. And then they start to hit them, and then the credits in the sky, like all that stuff is so cool to me, and I think it is clearly gonna be my favorite. If you watch this movie and know me at all, you know that that was what I was gonna pick. But there's so much also to go with it. There's amazing shots with the camera, moving objects, moving between people. The one that stands out to me is in the movie theater when it's kind of like a final destination bit of uh sequence that happens that kind of seems like it's like spawning this to happen, like these events have to happen in order, and it shows you what happens in the movie and then what happens in the crowd, and it follows that bottle rolling around. It's just little things like that really kept me interested. Where I was like, okay, this isn't just people being funny, this is something that we're doing. Like it feels good, like it's actually done well.

SPEAKER_05 45:38

Yeah, to me it felt very immersive for sure.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

You know, Ryan, I know you well enough at this point to know that that's exactly what you were gonna pick for your favorite visual element, and yet I did not come prepared with a backup. But to be fair, I did take your favorite kill, so now we're even.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

Rookie move.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

I particularly loved though when the movie's basically over and they get everything done, and then the final credits roll out as the sun rises. I thought that was a really nice touch and a really great use of that text. Um, I also really appreciated the effects that they used when they were going to a flashback, the way that like the sky started to drip down and everything started to lose saturation. I thought that was pretty effective and it was an entertaining thing to watch.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

It was so good, and I feel like it could have been done really badly, and especially the first time it happens, you're like, what is going on? It's so interesting to see.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

It's also interesting to see that now and look at how that was executed in a similar way. Obviously, not going back into the past to a flashback, but looking at Maddie having those flashbacks or those trans transformations and divisions in Malignant.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

I thought the same thing, Chris. It gave me very much malignant energy, which actually came before malignant, so maybe a malignant got an inspiration.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

Honestly, so many good visuals all around. I think another thing that I really, really enjoyed, even if it if it felt hokey, it was the moment when all hell is breaking loose in the theater, everything's on fire, and then they're figuring out that there's an exit behind the screen. It was cutting open the screen and the light pouring out. I don't care if it's hokey, that was beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Okay, also stabbing at the same time that her mother got stabbed. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 47:19

The moment that happened, I was like, Chris is gonna eat this shit up. And to be fair, I also liked it.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Yeah, that theater scene got me, but I gotta be honest with you, my favorite scene came at the very beginning of this movie, and it is the trailer for Camp Bloodbath. I agree. I completely agree. It was so good. It was so good, and uh for whatever reason, right? Like, because I think any of these horror comedy things have to kind of set the tone right at the beginning. The tone at the beginning of like Slumber Party Massacre did not work for me. Immediately I was like, ugh, I hate this. Whereas for whatever reason, this Camp Bloodbath trailer really, really did it for me. I was ready to laugh. I could I couldn't figure out if it was like a place to go to have fun, like it was a joke. But I don't know. It was just so good, it was funny, it was cute, and it just prepared me to roll through this movie. That is the thing that set me up to give this a slash.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

I'm I just still am dying at the kumbano. Yes. Really, I was laughing so much when that happened.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

It was so over the top, but in a good way, not in like, I'm so annoying and I hate you way. And I don't know what the difference is, honestly. I don't know why this feels different, but it does.

SPEAKER_05 48:34

I don't, I think because the characters aren't going as hard as you think they are.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 48:39

That's fair. My favorite scene is not just that trailer, right? Because I think that trailer really sets you up well. Mine is when they're actually in the movie. And I could say it's that whole first bit where they land, they get there, they reset, and you realize every 92 minutes this thing loops kind of like Happy Death Day. But really, where it is for me is when I saw myself in the movie, and it's when Duncan is like nerding out, quoting everything else, and he's I just felt like, would this be me? It might be me. But then he does some dumb shit, and like, maybe it wouldn't be me.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Chris, I had the exact same thought. I was like, I wonder what Chris would do if she woke up and was in a Halloween movie, and not necessarily the target, right? You you maybe could get out alive if you didn't stand in front of the killer like an idiot. But literally in that moment where they're standing in the woods and he's like talking to him or kind of looking at him, I was wondering what would Chris do in this situation? How would this go? And how excited would she be about this?

SPEAKER_03 49:43

I'd be so excited, but also I have a healthy respect and fear. Again, Michael Myers, longtime listener, first time caller. I'm not gonna fucking tempt you. I'm not gonna tempt you with a good time. I'm gonna respectfully move at a distance and say, hey, this is clearly we don't have to be in the Wallace house or the Doyle house. We can be two houses down the road, watch from afar, and we're good, right? Like Lori's gonna figure this shit out, it'll be fine. But it was Duncan's understanding of the film and how it worked that made me really grounded in okay, this movie knows exactly what it's doing, and I'm a hundred percent here for it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

Chris, you would be the Duncan in this movie.

SPEAKER_03 50:24

I would, except for again, I wouldn't try to take a selfie with Michael Myers. Would you not, though? Absolutely not. That man will fuck you up.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Even from across the street.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

If under the guise of thinking that you wouldn't be affected because you're not a part of the movie, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 50:39

But here's the thing the problem is Billy was looking at him at that point. And at no point does that happen in the movie that he's watched this whole time. Billy was looking at him, he just didn't know what to do with him.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

True.

SPEAKER_03 50:50

I wouldn't trust that shit. If I'm watching this and it's like I'm in Halloween, but Michael Myers has no awareness of my existence, hell yeah, take a selfie. But if Michael Myers is making eye contact with me, uh boo, no, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

Can he make eye contact with anyone?

SPEAKER_03 51:06

Yeah, he has the devil's eyes, the blackest eyes. I think you'd be mesmerized by the sheep. I again have a healthy fear and respect.

SPEAKER_05 51:16

Yeah, in my notes, I definitely wrote Chris is Duncan for sure, but she doesn't die off. And I also wrote, how fun it would it be for Chris to be in her own favorite slasher movie. So it is really fun to see this come alive. And that's where my favorite scene steps in when you have those first two deaths at the camp. You know, everyone's just casually looking behind the log. You know, it's fun. You get the vibe of this movie very quickly. But then all of a sudden, once Duncan is killed and these two other people are, they realize that this is real. And they get terrified and shocked. And I think that's what this movie is great at is changing how you feel about you're like, okay, cool, we're serious now. We're gonna be comedic, we're gonna be all these things, and it just it's it's a ride, and this is an example of why I think it's a ride.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

Yeah. Just remember if Duncan doesn't die, they survive too easily. That's very true.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

Also, I just want you to know that the hunk hiker really did it for me, and I am Mimi in this situation. That's all I have to say.

SPEAKER_03 52:22

Oh, that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

Okay, I was like, what are you talking about? And then I just thought about it and I was like, Oh, I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

You knew exactly what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Because we're the same person in a lot of ways. Alexis, though, you're totally right. I love the way that this movie played with the rules, and it was kind of like, okay, these are the bounds, these this is what we can do, and then it's like, or is it? And I think in my favorite scene that's showcased really well, and that's actually at the end of the movie when Max's mom dies again, but inside the movie, and then suddenly she's imbued with like all the power of a final girl, and she becomes like a Mary Sue and does all these like matrix moves, and she knows that like nothing she does will fail. And I found that to be really fun because at this point in the movie I was like, okay, I'm kind of over this. Get me out of this like mom-daughter, like blue light crying moment, and get me into like more fun stuff, and that was a very fun scene to just see her like matrix kill decapitate the killer.

SPEAKER_05 53:15

So matrix-y though, but I'm gonna be honest with you, Max's character, I just did not like, and you know, when you have those actors that play in other movies, and specifically Max's character in American Horror Story.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:35

She is so emo and so annoying in that TV show that all I could see her in this movie is also being very emo as well.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

Hilarious because Alexis often talks about how she was emo.

SPEAKER_05 53:47

So pretty much I just saw myself in this movie. I didn't want to see my reflection, and fuck that.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

My thing is, you know, at the beginning her mom says, like, don't ever be in a slasher. Like, it's this whole thing of like, no one can see me as anything other than this, so maybe it was done on purpose. Because I wouldn't say I saw her as a particular character, but I know I've seen her before, and so I recognize her, and maybe that was done intentionally as part of the as part of the plot, you know?

SPEAKER_01 54:15

Ryan, I love how generous that is because I was also thinking the whole time, oh, this is that girl from American Horror Story who I don't particularly care for. So I'm with Alexis, but I'm willing to be optimistic and say that that was a particular choice.

SPEAKER_02 54:27

I don't know. I didn't watch much of American Horror Story until the most recent season, so I've never seen her in that. But as I'm looking at her history of being in movies and TV shows, I don't know what I recognize her from. I cannot figure out what I've seen. It it's like the nun, final girls, and then American Horror Story. I've seen none of those things.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

Is it because you recognize her, or is it because you recognize her sister from The Conjuring?

SPEAKER_01 54:52

The campy, intuitive witch, psychic bitch?

SPEAKER_02 54:56

Does it just look like her though? It it can't really be her.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

They look exactly the same now that you're saying this, Chris.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Sister? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

I am gagging.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

Yeah, I I am having a very hard time understanding. Um, but that is actually what it is. I recognize her face from her sister. That's really weird, and I don't like that. Are they twins? Are they not twins? They are more twins than I've ever seen before.

SPEAKER_01 55:19

But also like 30 years apart somehow.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

She's 27 and her sister is 48. I love an off-generation child, okay? It runs in my family. We always have one that's like 15 years later, so I'm cool with that. Me too.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

Well, I'm the I'm the 15 years later.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Are you 15 years later?

SPEAKER_03 55:37

Yeah, my all my siblings are way older than me, like 75, 77, 79, and I'm in 89.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Every generation of my family has had someone 10 or 15 years later, and so I support it, but at the same time, I am creeped out by the fact that I recognize her face based on our sister. That's definitely what it is.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

I literally feel like I've slipped into another timeline. I'm like scrolling through pictures of them together, and I'm like, my brain can't handle this because it's so accurate, so true, but I wasn't prepared at all for this to be true.

SPEAKER_02 56:05

The genes are so strong.

SPEAKER_01 56:07

And it's also like the same vibe and the same energy. They both have like sad faces. I don't know what it is, but that's not their fault. What I can blame this movie for is its weak ass characters. I didn't give a shit about a single one of these people. Also, the character that played the mom could not have had less Betty Davis eyes. So for that to be her song with her tiny little beady eyes that aren't big or hooded at all, I was like, that's not your song, bitch. You ain't got Betty Davis eyes.

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Okay. It's their song together to dance and have a good time. Also, hear me out. Two things. One, we all sing the songs that have nothing to do with us. Yeah. Bra not a girl. Mm-hmm. None of us look like the songs that we like to sing.

SPEAKER_04 56:43

Fair.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

Two, the fact that Betty is spelled B-E-T-T-E ruins me. I know that's so dumb.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

It's Betty Davis.

SPEAKER_02 56:52

I understand. I get it. I understand this is a person that I don't know, but is important. If you watch this with captions and can't stand spelling things, this drove me nuts the whole time they were singing that song. I was just like, that doesn't say Betty. It clearly says Bet.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

Okay, I'm just gonna throw one more thing onto one more coal onto the fire. And this is for my Animal Crossing people out there because I know they exist in our listenership. And there's a frog that's famously very ugly in this game. And every time I see her, her name is Jean-Bet, and I just think she's got Jean Betty Davis.

SPEAKER_02 57:24

Meanwhile, I had never heard that song and kind of felt like it was made for this movie. So those are the two different versions of humans you have here.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

Ugh.

SPEAKER_03 57:32

Mm-hmm. So originally the song that they were supposed to use was Heaven is a Place on Earth.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 57:38

Which I cannot listen to now without thinking of the lesbian episode of Black Mirror. It's so romantic.

SPEAKER_02 57:45

Well, Paris, as much as you didn't like the characters here, I actually surprisingly didn't have beef with most of them. There's obviously some things I didn't enjoy. Like, we didn't need a hard F bomb in the middle of this movie. Like, we really didn't. It didn't do anything. It was just a lot in that moment. I think that moment was funny, but I didn't need it. But overall, I felt like we got characters that were a joke of themselves and a caricature, so it didn't bother me that some people were way too dumb and some people were a bit too sexual and annoying. Like I think Kurt was playing this character that is someone who can't talk about anything other than sex, right? Because that's the thing that we make fun of. And by we, I mean me, in these 80s slashers is like, are you guys really still talking about sex or really just trying to have sex? And Friday the 13th comes to mind immediately. But I think he he's playing a character of those people, and that's perfect in this movie. For me, clearly Paris and I have many different opinions about this, and he didn't align with it, but like the PG 13 and all that stuff did not bother me with these characters. I didn't need more cussing, I didn't need to see boobs and actual sex scenes. It was all good.

SPEAKER_03 59:01

Yeah, I was actually fairly satisfied with most of the characters in this movie. Kurt was a weak spot for me. The one that I really couldn't vibe with very well for a long time was Chris. And it wasn't until he talked about his gay dads, and then he like threw down on Kurt and just like was like, Nope, you're not fing talking about this. We're done here, you're not doing this, you're not doing that. When he stood up to him in that way, I appreciated it. But he just seemed like a buffoon. I mean, we can pour MMs in the popcorn, and it's the way every handful's like kind of suspensible. I hated that so much. He's a himbo.

SPEAKER_01 59:41

He is a himbo, but also the writing's bad.

SPEAKER_04 59:44

The writing is bad because it's about a bad movie. It's supposed to be.

SPEAKER_01 59:48

No, but they're not the ones in the bad movie. They're the real people.

SPEAKER_03 59:52

But it's meta, man. It's camp, Paris.

SPEAKER_01 59:56

Okay, this movie specifically is actually not camp.

SPEAKER_03 59:59

Okay, she's beating you at your own game, Paris. I think I'm winning this. This movie's not- Chris, do you think this movie's camp? I think it has campy moments for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:06

It has campy moments, but this movie's not camp.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:08

Campy moments. I'm not saying it's overall campy. Okay, no, I think that that's that's a distinction I'm not willing to make.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

What?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:15

It has campy moments and therefore falls into a camp category for me. No. If there's like a gradient saturation scale of campiness, it wouldn't be all the way to the right. That's malignant, but it's definitely not all the way to the left.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:27

The majority of the comedy in this movie, I will say, is not camp. And now we're dividing camp camps.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Because camp doesn't make sense, but it's okay. Okay. Anyway, I don't know. The characters just worked for me. I was really rooting for Chris and Max the whole time. I felt like he's just he's a himbo, but he was so sweet. We all have to have those people, you know. I feel like he was into her. He was trying to do things for her. As a person who needed comfort, he was there. He wasn't making dumb decisions, he didn't suck. I don't know. I was just soft when I was watching this movie or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:59

No, he's truly a sweetheart. Right. I'm cute.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:03

Oh, he's a cutie for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

Okay, but wait, I do have a character in this movie that I did enjoy. Maybe two. One of them was Gertie because Aliyah Shockat is just a star in everything she's ever done.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:14

What a beauty.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

But also Vicky, and I think this is probably no surprise to anybody, and it's not because I'm a fan of Degrassi, because Nina Dobrev was absolutely in Degrassi for like five seasons.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

For her, it was the my connection to uh the vampire diaries.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Oh, interesting. She's very much that kind of girl, like a CW pretty little liars kind of show. But I enjoyed her monologue when she was like on the docks and she was like, listen, the reason I've been a bitch to you this whole time is because I was actually like really upset when you shut me out when your mom died, and I felt like really jealous because you became best friends with this other girl and I didn't know what to do. And then she's like, I figured I should probably get this all out because we're like three-quarters of the way into an 80 slasher, and I'm the mean bitchy girl, so I'm probably gonna die soon. And I thought that that was like fun and also like just the amount of sentimental where I was like, I can get into this without like throwing up a little bit in my mouth.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

And it would like struck a good balance for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:02

Yes, she said, I think I've overstayed my welcome already.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:05

It was so good.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:07

The delivery at that portion of it was really solid for me. I don't like how crazy they made her look and obsessive with Chris, right? Like, I don't think we need to weigh her down. Clearly, when she got into the world and he called her, What's up, fun bags? And she's like, Yay, feminism. Obviously, she's so intelligent and she has her wits about her. I don't like that they made her so boy crazy with Chris in the initial, because you just walk in to think she's like, Okay, you're just a psycho X. That's weird.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

But also, Chris, I can I relate to this because sometimes you adopt that character because when people look at you, they assume that's what you are. So you're like, you know what? I'll pretend to be that and get what I want out of it, but it's not truly who I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

Okay, but also it's a weird part of the story because why is Max like talking to dating more or less uh one of her friends' ex-boyfriends? It's a weird, it was a weird plot line that we didn't really talk about, and it is just unnecessary.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:59

We didn't need to weigh it down. I think Vicky could have been a scornful ex, but like the psychotic is stalking his Twitter. So, you know, it just it felt a bit much for the character that we end up seeing that she is.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

Agreed.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:11

It was like too much of a reach. Like I I didn't like that. But what I did really enjoy was her having that moment, and then when she told Max to just go, and she stayed under there, grabbed Gertie's hand, and pulled the bucket down with the gasoline so that they could just have this explosion. She was a redemptive moment for me. I'm surprised you haven't talked more about Tina.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:33

I hated Tina.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:34

Get the fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:35

Tina sucked. Okay, here is my piece with Tina. To play stupid, you have to be very smart. And this was not that. This was a dumb person trying to play dumb, and that's what I'm gonna leave it at.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:47

That's aggressive. I hated the whole like Adderall thing, and then the interaction with the phone. I thought those two bits were very over the top, but everything else I quite enjoyed. I mean, they were all being very dumb in the beginning, and I was okay with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

On paper, you would think that I would love the Tina character, but in practice, she did almost nothing for me, except when she fell face first into a bear trap.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:11

I'm sorry. I have a note that says, So Paris loves Tina, right? I love Legends, Loch Ness, Bigfoot, Bon Jovi, all of them. You didn't like that moment? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:20

Not funny, bad writing, very dumb.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

No, it was a great line.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

Her character was poorly written, I think. And I don't I I won't say it's necessarily the actress's fault, but the script she was given to work with was garbage.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:31

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:32

What?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:32

Predictably unpredictable, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

No, listen, the algorithm said I would like this, and people that know me would be like, oh, he might like this, but it just doesn't quite do it. It's like bizarro world where everything seems like something you know, but it's not quite there.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:48

On this kind of similar topic, I need to just like address something for a moment. There is a bit of like uncertainty about the era that we're in in this movie, because it starts with a sidekick, and then three years later, she's watching something on a TV that is clearly like tiny VHS that like maybe somebody had when they were like eight in 2000 something, but definitely before 2015, and definitely not after the sidekick era. There's just a very weird thing, and then all of a sudden, when they're in the movie, they have an iPhone. The technology here doesn't work out, and it just you just have to not they brought in the iPhone. Sure, I know that, but what I'm saying is they brought in an iPhone three years after they had the sidekick, but also the TV is like old school.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:35

Here's the thing about the TV they say that she's living with her aunt. I think her aunt has this older TV specifically for watching those home videos. Because we like we still have an old ass TV in our storage room.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:47

Not like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:48

We uh would do we use it? No, but it seems like she's like trying to like go through play these old VHSs, then that's just what she has.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

It was like an eight inch built in VHS TV. It was This you can still get those. No. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you can still get anything.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:04

It doesn't mean you should or would. It was very obvious that although she was watching on that TV, that wasn't the technology of the time. Like you see them using modern phones, and it felt like the rest of it felt very, very modern.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:18

I don't know. I d I disagree, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:20

Now obviously I've had a lot of shit to talk about this movie, but honestly, the best part for me was the bloopers because it made me realize how much fun it was to make this movie. And I feel like I've said this a couple times, but I feel like there is an R-rated cut of this somewhere out there where the things that they couldn't put in there to get the PG-13 rating had to be cut. And I think that the movie that was made was very good. The movie we got, not so much. But the bloopers really let me in on like the the fun and the vibe and like the the really great time that you can tell everybody had on set.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:58

Well, maybe they would have had more fun on set had they gotten to actually uh do some tumbling in that car in the first car accident, because that shit was the worst part, looking at how terrible that CGI was.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:10

Yes, Chris, I completely agree. I wrote it down twice because it was so bad. And for that time, I feel like you could have done something different to make that look a little bit more realistic, or just not have that part in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:25

I think that's really interesting because to me it didn't need to be super realistic because we were already set up to be in a horror comedy. I don't know, it didn't stand out to me. I actually think my worst part is funny because we just talked a lot about this, but the dumb things that happen in this movie are too over the top. Tina, like the whole Adderall thing, it's too over the top for me. Those are the bits that I couldn't quite get on with. Those are the worst parts for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:55

Well, regardless of the worst parts, and I know Paris, you've already watched this twice, uh, even with your best moment. Would any of you watch this again?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:04

I'm definitely not gonna, but I wouldn't be against it.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:07

When I was talking about how this was a slash, I said I definitely would watch this again, and in the near future, which I could totally see. If this is something that's on TV, I'm definitely gonna keep it on and not turn it off.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:19

So I'm not gonna watch this movie again, but it is not a terrible movie. It's an easy watch for sure. Like when I knew we were watching this again, I was like, I don't remember liking this, but I'm not like miserable that I have to watch it again. It was actually like there's parts that are entertaining and fun. So it's not something I watch again, but if you're in for a good time and like a shut your brain off kind of movie, definitely watch it.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:39

I'm absolutely gonna watch this again. There's a lot to appreciate about this movie. There's a lot of really great moments in it. There's a lot that I haven't even gotten to uncover yet in terms of connections to previous horror films, even the ones that we've covered on this show. But I think some of the things that I've also learned in fact or fiction may sway a little bit on that rewatchability. I can't wait. Number one, Angela Trimber, who played Tina, is actually a classically trained dancer. As such, she was entrusted to choreograph her striptease.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

Ooh, I'm definitely going fact because she went hard.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:08

To me, that did not look like it was choreographed at all. Nothing's not choreographed.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

It was done bad on purpose.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:16

Uh, it still looked like if I were to dance in front of my mirror, so I'm just saying this is gonna be uh fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:22

I'm gonna say fiction as well because when I was watching that scene this time, all I could think of was her probably doing that scene in the audition, and that's how she got the role.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:30

So it is fiction, but it's because she improvised her entire dance sequence. She specifically slammed energy drinks to get into character and worked herself up for the dance.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:40

I literally thought that except Coke.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:41

I was wrong about the tequila.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:43

Interesting. That's how you get hype now. I'm gonna learn that before I get on the dance floor this weekend.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:48

Number two, in a throwback to one of our previous episodes, the original version of the script featured the killer Billy Murphy being named Hatchet Face. Fiction? I hate that, but maybe it's on purpose.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:00

Fact.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:00

I'm gonna say fiction as well, because what how are you gonna name a character Hatchet Face if they're wearing a mask that looks like a tiki chameleon? I don't know, there's a disconnect there for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:10

Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, it is a fact. Number three. We'll dig a little bit more into the original version of that script. When our group of modern kids were dropped into the film, they were initially supposed to undergo physical and psychological transformations to make them more aligned with 80s characters. Physical, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:27

I will say fact because it feels like every character had like the seed or the sapling of a trope, but then never like fully went for it, and I feel like that could have been fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

I'll say fact. I truly have no idea I've been wrong continuously, so I'll say fiction.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

I'm sorry to disappoint you. It's a fact. The girls' waistlands were supposed to shrink, their breasts were to balloon, and Gertie was to be so enamored with her newfound beauty that she would actually try to sabotage her friends to ensure they could never leave.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:58

And just like that, it's a slash.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:01

That's a terrible m oh god, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:04

I'm just fucking with y'all.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:06

Alright, moving on to number four. Now, part of this movie's need for low gore and a PG 13 rating was the budgetary constraints. Much of the heavy lifting was actually done in post. So the skies were digitally replaced, the theater fire, and the car accidents and explosions, all CGI.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:21

I I feel strongly that the backgrounds were CGI, the car was CGI, the fire, sure. Whatever, fact. I'm gonna say fact too.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:31

I do think those things were CGI, but was it because of budget? Ugh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:36

Yeah, CGI budget sounds expensive.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:38

Yeah, what? Oh, whatever, fact. Let's see.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:41

Yeah, that's not Mac, so the specifics are different. Well, it's fiction. The car crash and explosion at the camp were done practically. What interesting? They crashed that car and they set it on fire.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:51

That car crash was not CGI.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:53

At the camp, specifically. Oh. The opening car crash of the mom, absolutely CGI. That was entirely CGI. Oh, you played us.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:01

Yeah, we've been deceived.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

Car accidents, plural. The one at the camp and the explosion. Okay. All practical. Uh-huh. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You saw this movie. There were two car accidents. Number five, wrapping things up. Alexander Ludwig, who plays Chris, is the son of an actress. His mother, Charlene Martin, appeared in Friday the 13th, part 8. Jason Takes Manhattan from 1989 as prong queen Tamara Mason. There's so many details.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:29

I'm just gonna say fiction to be safe. Something in there sounds like a fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:34

Okay, but I'm really clinging to the idea that this man is only famous because he has somebody in this family that's in the industry, because otherwise, the most plain-looking white man you've ever seen in your life. So I'm gonna say fact.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:44

Well, I don't know if that's the only reason he's famous, but it absolutely is a fact. His mother did encounter Jason when he took Manhattan. Actually, before he took Manhattan, they were on the boat on the way to Manhattan.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:55

There you have it, folks.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:56

And there you have it. With as inspired as this movie was by Friday the 13th and previous slashers, we have blood lineage to go along with that. As we wrap up here, the final girls from 2015, selected by our patrons, made out fairly well with three slashes and one hack. Now, we've talked a lot about this movie. There's still a lot to uncover, and we want to know what you think and how you're feeling about it as well. So keep in mind there are a number of ways to reach out to us, starting with our website, hackerslash.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:24

Or on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:27

And if you think that you could survive, if you get dropped into your favorite horror movie, you can reach out to our Hackerslash Hotline and tell us about it. You can leave us a voicemail at 757-606-0128, or visit hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:45

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons, like Matt and Amber. You can visit patreon.com slash hacker slash to earn cool perks for as low as $1 a month.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:55

See you next time, folks. And remember, technically we start dying the moment we're born. Bye.