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Movie Review: “Tragedy Girls” Is #BloodyAwesome

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A twist on the slasher genre, the film follows two death-obsessed teenage girls who use their online show about real-life tragedies to send their small mid-western town into a frenzy and cement their legacy as modern horror legends.

Back in 1996, “Scream” cleverly subverted “teen-horror” genre clichés, while also managing to stay true to them. Both an ode and a satire, Wes Craven’s seminal slasher thrilled as a tongue-in-cheek send-up of 1980s “masked killer” classics like “Friday the 13th” and stood on its own as a gore-filled “whodunit.”

In addition to being an effective comedy/chiller, the original “Scream” perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the tremulous late 1990s. Haunted by major events like Osama bin Laden’s declaration of war – a war that, similarly to the Ghostface murderer in “Scream,” no one really understood – and OJ’s acquittal, it represented a confused, scared nation, as seen through the prism of its rebellious, nerdy, film and popularity-obsessed teenagers. Media was becoming more bias (see: Gale Weathers’ reporter, hilariously played by Courtney Cox), teens more angsty (see: Neve Campbell’s pseudo-goth Sidney Prescott) and violent (see: Skeet Ulrich’s deranged Billy Loomis) and the cops more useless in the face of overwhelming forces they did not comprehend (see: David Arquette’s goofy Deputy Dewey).

It was a neat trick to pull off – and a difficult one, as “Scream”’s three increasingly inferior sequels proved. Then came a slew of imitators that failed to capture Craven’s subtly political, razor-blade satire, instead fully resorting to “dumb teens dying in grisly ways” cliche: “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (and its sequel, where the killer STILL knew), “Urban Legend” (and its sequel, where the Legend was STILL Urban), the “Final Destination” series – and so on. The trend still continues, with the terribly-titled “Happy Death Day” raking in money at the box-office as I write this. Those horror flicks seem to be missing the essence of what made “Scream” so great.

Thankfully, recently a sub-genre of intelligent “teen-slasher” flicks began to emerge, puncturing the “teen slasher” vacuousness with directorial flourishes, clever genre subversions and a healthy dose of irony. That small-but-growing “movement” – which includes “It Follows,” “The Cabin in the Woods,” “The Descent,” “Martyrs,” and “Creep,” to name but a few – is now joined by director Tyler MacIntyre’s horror/comedy hybrid “Tragedy Girls” (which even references “Martyrs”). Focusing on a friendship between two sociopathic high-school BFFs, it’s a spicy cocktail of relevant commentary, dark comedy, and outright horror.

It doesn’t take long for the film to kick into high gear and defy expectations. The young, fiery Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand, Negasonic Teenage Warhead in “Deadpool”) makes her escape from a masked killer. His machete still covered in her boy toy’s blood, the psycho proceeds to trip over a strategically-installed wire and is then tasered by Sadie and her best friend McKayla (Alexandra Shipp, who, somewhat coincidentally, played Storm in “X-Men: Apocalypse”). The title credit blares in neon. Welcome to the world of “Tragedy Girls.”

Sadie and McKayla – sporting hip hairdos and nonchalant attitudes – strap Lowell the Killer (Kevin Durand), a “Texas Chainsaw reject,” to a chair in their “lair” and, after a small “pep talk” (“Do you know how many hand jobs this girl had to give to get you?”), reveal their plan to him: the girls want him to be their guru, to teach them in the ways of mass murder.

Both girls have cozy homes with loving parents. At school, they cheerlead, lead the prom board committee and get jealous of boys. Sadie’s obsession, the suspicious Jordan (Jack Quaid, of “The Hunger Games” fame), edits their popular “Tragedy Girls” video blog, in which they “investigate” their own murders and provoke controversy, while McKayla’s crush, the dreamy Toby (Josh Hutcherson, of, um, “The Hunger Games” fame) has a competing popular blog.

Of course, anyone who stands in the way of “Tragedy Girls” has gotta go, in various ways: a motorcycle killing followed by a brutal stabbing, a (botched) masked art-room attack, a memorable gym tussle that ends with one of the more inventive decapitations in recent cinematic history… As their blog jeopardizes the actual police investigation and provokes a furor of the entire town, Jordan narrows down his own list of suspects to – you guessed it – our heroines. In a wild turn of events, Sadie becomes the local town hero, which leads to a fallout between the girls, and gives her a taste of humanity… which she doesn’t seem to like very much. It all culminates in a very “Carrie”-esque prom night.

The acting is top-notch throughout, with the two leads effortlessly dishing out both cutesy charm and despicable evil. The film hinges on their performances and they pull it off with aplomb. Josh Hutcherson – in the vein of the film’s overarching goal, it seems – hilariously subverts his own “cool guy” image, enunciating each word with a James Dean-like indifference. A special shout-out goes to the always-reliable Craig Robinson (also a producer on the film), who plays local firefighter and community leader Big Al.

I bet the cast relished reciting such deliciously nasty dialogue: “To make an omelet, you have to kill some ex-boyfriends,” or “That is some serious ‘Final Destination’ shit.” The film is briskly paced, maintaining that uncanny, disturbing “jolly/vicious” balance, with its twinkling (kick-ass!) soundtrack and 1980s teen-flick staples blending smoothly, as opposed to clashing, with the blood-soaked elements.

In what could be a slyly Hitchcockian move, MacIntyre actually makes us root for the girls at certain points throughout the film, making us sick participants, a-la Michale Haneke via “Funny Games.” But that’s just one of the perverted pleasures “Tragedy Girls” offers. By turns deeply twisted, side-splitting, bitter and resonant, the film, like “Scream,” works on many levels: as a straightforward horror flick, a feminist parable and a clever satire of our social media-dependent culture, where tragedy is milked for “likes”, abbreviated, memefied, and capitalized upon, and the line between true feeling and pixelated emotion becomes increasingly blurry. (“If I’m gonna be murdered,” utters one victim, in a mockingly poignant moment, “I’m so happy it’s you.”) If there’s a flaw, it’s the didactic lack of any background – or any sensible trace of actual emotion – in the girls.

But perhaps that’s the generation we live in, defined by its vapid chasm of explanation for, or reasoning behind, its malignant actions. Like “Scream”, one could argue, “Tragedy Girls” also functions as a parable of our tumultuous times, with senseless, glorified crimes committed – and consequently showcased – at an alarmingly increasing rate. With the stench of looming attacks, hurricanes and war stinging our collective nostrils, we turn to social media for solace. So, remember, “You can follow us. It’s @TragedyGirls… Two, plural.”

Now playing in select theaters

 

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Alex Saveliev

Alex graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a BA in Film & Media Arts and studied journalism at the Northwestern University in Chicago. While there, he got acquainted with the late Roger Ebert, who supported and inspired Alex in his career as a screenwriter and film critic. Alex has produced, written and directed a short zombie film, “Parched,” which is being distributed internationally and he is developing a series for a TV network, and is in pre-production on a major motion picture.