Your new favorite maniac pixie nightmare girls are heading to a theater near you.
As you’re no doubt already aware, 2017 has been one hell of a year for horror movies. Stephen King’s IT is currently breaking box-office records, and previous months have gifted fans with dark delights as varied and fantastic as The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Get Out, The Devil’s Candy, and more. There’s more to come this year including a pair of slasher/comedies that are among the best the sub-genre has to offer.
Both Tragedy Girls (my review) and Better Watch Out (my review) are smart, bloody thrillers that blend fun thrills with an abundance of laughs, creativity, and wit. They also both just happened to release their very first trailers in advance of theatrical releases next month. If you’re already leaning towards seeing the films I’d suggest skipping the trailers all together and just trust that I wouldn’t steer you wrong. Speaking specifically to the Better Watch Out one — it’s spoilerish enough that I’d recommend not watching it, period, and to that end I’m not even including it here.
I repeat, do not watch the Better Watch Out trailer if you’re already planning on seeing the movie.
By contrast, the Tragedy Girls trailer won’t ruin anything for you, but it does step on some gags that are fun to discover in the moment. If you absolutely can’t resist the urge to check out the first trailer though… you can watch it right here.
All of those quotes are accurate, especially the one calling the film “a goddamn blast.”
As I said in my review, the film is a glorious blend of bloody demises and laugh-out-loud humor that effortlessly appeals to fans of similar gems like Tucker & Dale vs Evil and The Final Girls while carving its own way with an impressive body count and buckets of wit.
The trailer gives a good sense of the film’s tone and style — think Scream meets Heathers, and set in a social media-obsessed world — but don’t think the heavy dose of comedy means it pulls punches with the darker stuff. The film fully embraces the slaughter with entertaining kills, fun set-pieces, and a mean streak a mile wide. It gets pretty brutal at times to the point of testing your allegiances, but the narrative holds true to the end leaving viewers satisfied and ready to watch it again.
Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp leave their Marvel heroines behind (from Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse, respectively) to step out as bigger bad-asses who are as quick with a quip as they are the flick of a knife. The supporting cast is equally strong with terrific turns by Kevin Durand, Craig Robinson, and more, and they all contribute to a movie that feels at every turn like an adrenaline shot to your genre-loving heart and soul.
Tragedy Girls slices its way into theaters on October 20th.