Celebrate 10 years of the perfect horror movie on Tubi

The author Chris Snelgrove
| Published 2 seconds ago

I'm a huge horror fiend, but there are two things that usually stop me from watching a scary movie: bad reviews and a bad cover. Unfortunately, in 2015 Final girl suffers from both, so I continued to ignore the movie no matter how many times my various algorithms shoved it in my face. I finally gave in and watched this movie for free on Tubi and I'm happy to report that despite what the haters say, this is almost perfect horror movie.

The last girl attracts attention

The cast Final girl is pretty lean, but features some pretty big names, including Abigail Breslin (better known as Little Miss Sun) as the titular finale girl and Wes Bentley (better known as American beauty and Interstellar) as her no-nonsense coach. She is trained by a mysterious organization that gives her James Bond-level skills to help her kill bad guys. The bad guys in this film are a quartet of boy assassins led by a charismatic sociopath (Alexander Ludwig, best known for The Hunger Games and Vikings TV show).

While not everyone's cup of tea, I really enjoyed it Final girl about its actual narrative, including the fact that we don't get a lot of specifics about who this mysterious organization is, what its purpose is, or even the exact year in which part of this period takes place. It's the ultimate “show don't tell” horror movie, and it's only good because of director Tyler Shields. Shields is actually a photographer by trade, and to his credit, he brings a distinct style to every frame of the film, one that finds a balance between artistic excess. Zack Snyder and the arthouse minimalism of Jim Jarmusch.

Buffy fans take note

If you like horror movies, you might like this one Final girl destroys hope in the delicate tradition Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The bad guys are a quartet of youthful killers whose dark ruse involves picking an unsuspecting target, taking her to the woods, and revealing their plan to hunt her down and kill her while dressed in tuxedos. They plan on Breslin's character to be their next target, not knowing that she has trained all her life to kill these types of villains in the most brutal ways.

The film is just as creative, but it can be hard to appreciate unless you look past its very tropical design. It's basically a classic revenge story with a twist where the potential victim is ready to turn the tables, much like you'd get if Buffy Summers hunted human monsters instead of the undead. Despite some very familiar scenes, this film's dialogue is sparkling, the cinematography is breathtaking, and the kills are both unpredictable and satisfying, making this one film that is more than the sum of its trope parts.

Not enough Feedback

Unfortunately, not everyone appreciated Final girl almost as much when it came out (first in limited theatrical release and then on video-on-demand). On Rotten tomatoesthe film currently holds a 25 percent critical score, albeit from only 12 critics. And while every fanboy likes to say that critics have trashed their favorite movies, this is one case where most critics really got it wrong when they complained about things like the plot being simple and the movie being too violent. What the hell did they expect from a horror movie?

It is true that Final girl I don't think you mean by a complex plot from a Chris Nolan movie, but I believe that the best slasher movies are the ones that follow the classic formula, like the movies. Friday the 13th while still managing to surprise us with some unexpected twists. That's right Final girl does: uses the formula of hunting down and killing unsuspecting victims in the woods, but making those victims into potential victims. The result is the rare scary movie where we get to track down a brutal killer while she's busy killing some of the worst people out there.

Will you find Final girl as excited as I am, or will you agree with the critics that this artistic slasher attempt fails to reach the cinematic artery? The only way to find out is to stream it for free on Tubi. I'll leave you with a simple reminder that I wish someone had shared with me when this movie came out in 2015: it's a lot, a lot better than its hideous cover would suggest.