Thursday, February 8, 2018

Review: Tragedy Girls (2017)

Tragedy Girls (2017)

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence, and language including sexual references

Score: 4 out of 5

Scream was a classic horror movie whose influence is still being felt today, but at the same time, it is one that was very much born and bred in the '90s and filled with the preoccupations of that time period. As such, the idea of updating Scream for the modern day has captivated a lot of horror filmmakers. The first attempt at such, the canon sequel Scream 4 from original director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson, was a good movie whose killer proved to be frighteningly prescient of the age of narcissistic, self-absorbed YouTube celebrities <glances over to Logan Paul>, though it wasn't a perfect one, suffering from an uneven tone and surprisingly flat direction from Craven. The second attempt was the MTV television series, which... wasn't so good. Even at its best, the use of modern technology and the Scream brand felt like little more than set dressing for an old-fashioned teen slasher story of the sort that Scream used to mock, and at worst it dipped into the depths of teen drama hell.

I'm bringing up these stories because Tragedy Girls is basically the film that they wanted to be: a successful modernization of Scream for the Tumblr generation. It's a movie about two teenage girls from the heartland obsessed with both horror movies and lurid "true crime" stories about serial killers and mass murderers, from Starkweather to Manson to Bundy, who decide to build a new legend. The film has to walk a fine line in making its protagonists interesting while still recognizing the fact that they are complete and utter psychopaths with serious issues, yet against all odds, it pulls it off, thanks to both its lead actresses and a cutting, pitch-black sense of humor that melds graphic bloodshed with some ridiculous gags. It's an effortlessly entertaining horror-comedy that's fairly lightweight and probably shouldn't be thought about for too long, but which I had a blast with while I was watching it.

Sadie Cunningham and McKayla Hooper (any horror fans can recognize the homages in those two last names) are a pair of seemingly normal high school students in their ordinary Midwestern small town. They're on the cheerleading squad, they head up the prom committee... and they've also created a true crime vlog called Tragedy Girls with the help of their friend, the sheriff's son Jordan Welch. Wondering why they're not getting more followers, they find and kidnap an actual local serial killer named Lowell with intent to frame him for their own murder spree, calculated so that they can cover it and have the inside scoop to share on a breaking, high-profile crime story. Things start going wrong once they get to the job of actually killing people, however, what with Sadie and McKayla being two teenage girls with little experience in the fine art of hacking their rival on the prom committee to pieces, or poisoning the coach/fire marshal during his workout. And that's before Lowell throws an even bigger wrench into their plans.

The stars of the show here are, of course, the actresses playing Sadie and McKayla. Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp make for a great team together, having a ton of fun in their roles without ever losing sight of the fact that their characters are evil; this is a film that sails right through the Bechdel test in a matter of minutes. As the film progresses, Sadie and McKayla quickly reveal themselves to be the personification of every stereotype of "kids these days" in the 2010s that you can imagine, as they murder people for the sake of their internet fame, and Hildebrand and Shipp have to walk a very fine line in making these characters even the slightest bit sympathetic. And yet, they do it. Their actions are completely divorced from conventional morality, yet from the moment we're introduced to their classmate Toby Mitchell (played by Josh Hutcherson in a bit part), a minor Instagram celebrity with tens of thousands of followers that they're jealous of, it becomes clear what this movie is: satire. Watching Sadie and McKayla plot and commit their crimes together is like watching the ending of Scream 4 stretched out to an entire film, as the film presents its heroines superficially as cool rebels, but more substantively as the unshackled id of all their fame-obsessed peers, both those in the film itself and those watching it in real life. They are a pair of smirking, soulless sociopaths who only consider the morality of their actions when it threatens to affect them personally, yet still charming enough to make me like them -- the perky, female fashionista versions of any number of great male serial killers from film and TV, from Hannibal Lecter to Patrick Bateman to Dexter Morgan. When they ride off into the sunset, it feels like just as much the promise of a slasher sequel for the viewer as it does a triumph for the characters.

That brings me to the fact that, at its core, this is a slasher movie, albeit told from the killers' point of view as they seek to outwit the authorities. The gore flows like a river, with slashed throats, stabbings, and items ranging from buzzsaws to barbells used to kill and dismember, and while the blood looked a bit too watery at times to be convincing, the effects are still grisly enough to shock. It's not actually scary -- it's not meant to be -- but it makes for a set of great punchlines to the protagonists' rampage. The supporting cast that suffers these deaths is also a treat, from Craig Robinson's beefy, gung-ho hero wannabe Big Al to Nicky Whelan as the boozy teacher Mrs. Kent to Kevin Durand as Lowell, the serial killer who has more than a few tips for these girls on how to kill people if only they'd just let him free. Jack Quaid is probably the closest thing this film has to a "hero" as Jordan, the eager friend of the Tragedy Girls who, while clueless about their true nature, is still committed to helping them "find" the killer through his own investigation, albeit one whose affection for Sadie blinds him to the truth even as he starts to piece together just what is really going on. It all builds up to a big, over-the-top finale that actually "goes there", even if... look, movie marketing guys? I had to use the original teaser poster for this to put on my review, rather than the final poster currently hanging on Wikipedia, because that one spoils the ending of this. Seriously. Cut that out.

The Bottom Line

The plot would probably fall apart if I took another, closer look at it, but as a farcical satire of slasher movies, the real crimes that inspire them, and online teen culture, Tragedy Girls shines as a fun, twisted little movie.

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