Sightlines · reception

How The Final Girls was received

2015 · Todd Strauss-Schulson · The Final Girls on Sightlines

The arc

It premiered at SXSW in 2015, got warm reviews, then went almost straight to VOD and was barely noticed. Since then word of mouth has made it a cult favorite and a regular Halloween rewatch, mostly because the slasher spoof turns out to be a sincere story about grief.

What’s debated

Fans argue over whether its PG-13 softness and lack of gore make it a slasher-lite novelty, or whether skipping the blood is exactly why the mother-daughter story hits so hard.

Its footprint

People remember it for the Friday the 13th-style 'Camp Bloodbath' movie the characters fall into, and for its emotional use of Kim Carnes's 'Bette Davis Eyes'. It often gets mentioned as the meta-slasher that made people cry.

Where it stands

It's a beloved underseen cult film that keeps landing on lists of overlooked horror comedies and gets passed along between friends.

Did you know? Co-writer Joshua John Miller is the son of Jason Miller, who played Father Karras in The Exorcist. Miller was a child actor himself, in Near Dark and River's Edge.