Tragedy Girls
Tragedy Girls is a delightfully subversive and darkly comedic take on a slasher horror film, though it doesn’t necessarily reinvent the genre.
Sadie Cunningham ( Brianna Hildebrand ) and McKayla Hooper ( Alexandra Shipp ) are long - time best champion who run a crime web log investigating local murder in their little midwestern township , but they do n’t have nearly as many followers as they believe they should . Through their investigation , Sadie and McKayla track down and enamor the serial killer plaguing their Ithiel Town - but they do n’t trust to bring Lowell ( Kevin Durand ) to justice . Rather , they wish to be trained by him and find out what they can about becoming nonparallel killers themselves , though they ’ve already studied a not bad pile . But , when Lowell is unwilling to help or team up up with Sadie and McKayla , the girls settle to take matters into their own hands .
Together , Sadie and McKayla conspire to send a series of murder and habituate their insider knowledge of the crime to advance the societal media visibility of their blog . However , thing do n’t go quite harmonize to plan and the town ’s Sheriff , Blane Welch ( Timothy V. Murphy ) , makes the girls ' finish that much more difficult , even as his son Jordan ( Jack Quaid ) continues to help Sadie edit videos for her blog and look into the murders . As things in their modest townsfolk continue to escalate with each unexampled direful slaying , Sadie and McKayla set case into motion that could potentially destroy their friendship - oh , and cause the death of many of their fellow students and town .
Tragedy Girlsmixes teen funniness and repulsion movie tropes , with a panache of nihilism in the vein ofHeathers , but is very much its own film , seamster - made for the social medium generation . The result is a playfulness and risible horror comedy that has a surprising amount of heart thanks to the friendly relationship between Sadie and McKayla being centered in the film . While the moving-picture show mean to upend prospect from the get - go , it does so in a way that feels predictable , at time merely falling in parentage with archetypes rather than misdirect them . Tragedy Girlsis a delightfully insurgent and darkly comedic take on a slasher horror film , though it does n’t necessarily reinvent the writing style .
The motion-picture show was mastermind by Tyler MacIntyre from a script he co - publish with collaborator Chris Lee Hill . The pair last shape on 2015 horror comedyPatchwork , a modern take on Mary Shelley’sFrankensteinwith solid female characters at the cutting edge . likewise , Tragedy Girlscenters two well developed , and rather unlikable , female anti - heroes in Sadie and McKayla , whose friendly relationship provides the heart of the worked up arc in the film . Everything inTragedy Girlsis centered around their moral force and how it ’s challenged by the girls ' plans , with even the murders they commit contributing flat to their evolution . In this fashion , Tragedy Girlsis almost more teenaged comedy than revulsion moving-picture show , but there ’s still deal of gore .
As already state , each ingredient ofTragedy Girls ' plot line act upon to progress the discharge of Sadie and McKayla ’s friendship and how it ’s impacted by their serial killing ways , including the murders . Still , Tragedy Girlsdelivers on the kind of outrageous demise fan would require of a revulsion clowning about two social media - ghost teenager stumbling through their first murders - complete with blood that is too - bright redness , hold it a step or two away from naturalism . But , the unrealistically grisly deaths are part of the fun ofTragedy Girls , which heightens both the gore and the girls ' obsession as a means of subverting horror rule and stereotypical female characters . That ’s not to sayTragedy Girlsdoesn’t revelry in its many bloody kills , but there is more depth to it than on first coup d’oeil .
That astuteness number from the performances of Shipp and Hildebrand , who present Sadie and McKayla as exceedingly unlikeable narcissistic sociopaths , but who are entirely compelling as a pair of long - prison term salutary acquaintance - best champion who just so happen to partake in homicidal impulses . Their kinship , however unconventional it is on a central level , actually follows a reasonably typical teenage clowning / romantic comedy arc . Positioning a platonic friendship where a romantic kinship would be is in and of itself subversive , butTragedy Girlsdoesn’t dive deeper into upending expectations than merely flip over the script . Still , without the surprisingly ground nature of Sadie and McKayla ’s relationship - convey to life rather sincerely by Hildebrand and Shipp from MacIntyre and Hill ’s script - the more absurd factor of the movie would n’t work .
Of of course , while the success or failure ofTragedy Girlsno dubiousness catch one’s breath on Shipp and Hildebrand , the brace are fence by some fun and compelling performances , include brief but hilarious turning by Josh Hutcherson as McKayla ’s X - boyfriend Toby Mitchell and Craig Robinson as local fire chief Big Al . Quaid has a restfully subversive persona as Jordan , who would be a sexuality - switch Final Girl kin to Sidney Prescott inScreamifTragedy Girlsweren’t Sadie and McKayla ’s level . Durand , meanwhile , wager the one - note stereotypic repulsion movie sociopath in Lowell , but with enough creepiness that he works excellently as the straight gentleman to the caper of Sadie and McKayla . Like the repulsion beat and the emotional arc ofTragedy Girlsthough , these performances mainly work inasfar as elevating Sadie and McKayla - which they would no doubt treasure .
All in all , Tragedy Girlsis a fun and unequaled entrance in the horror comedy genre that may not quite attain the enormousness ofHeathersandScreamsimply because it does n’t upend expectation enough to be monumentally dissimilar from normal . surely , distaff serial killer - just like well train unlikable female anti - heroes in picture show and TV - are unique enough that the premise ofTragedy Girlsis already make for with a largely impertinent estimate . Coupled with the performance of Hildebrand and Shipp , as well as the many fun nod to specific repulsion moving picture and the genre as a whole , Tragedy Girlsdelivers an entertaining and different repugnance comedy perfect for rooter of the genre , but may not be necessary viewing for those who ca n’t stomach the movie ’s more gruesome dying scenes .
Trailer
Tragedy Girlsis now playing in U.S. theaters . It runs 98 minutes and is grade universal gas constant for strong blooming revulsion fierceness , and language let in some sexual references .
Craig Robinson in Tragedy Girls
Craig Robinson in Tragedy Girls
Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp in Tragedy Girls
