I had minimal expectations going into "Tragedy Girls" because, even though a massive fan of slashers and 80s horror cinema in general, I don't feel like I'm part of the target group for this kind of films. Horror comedies, and particularly self-declared "homages" or "throwbacks", are rarely as clever as the writer/director thinks they are. Moreover, yours truly is a 36-year-old male with very few interest in social media (Twitter, Snapchat and whatnot) and I most certainly cannot connect with the life-world of popular teenage girls. Still, there was something irresistibly appealing about the premise of "Tragedy Girls", so I went into the theater with an open mindset and must admit I don't have any regrets. BFF's Sadie and McKayla have two main purposes in life: killing many people and having the world's largest number of Twitter-followers; - the second being even more crucial than the first. They kidnap and cage a beginning serial killer, but cheerfully continue the murder spree themselves whilst actively reporting on social media and incriminating the allegedly at large killer. The girls choose their next victims based on whoever steals their media attention, and meanwhile they also have a school prom to prepare!
I'm not quite sure if director Tyler MacIntyre is spoofing or accurately depicting the trending phenomenon of social media. Teenagers nowadays really are obsessed with their smartphones and do the craziest things to earn their spot on the internet. I don't see any dumb kids capable of murdering other human beings, but admittedly it's a good baseline for a horror comedy. In many other reviews I read that many viewers find all the lead characters, especially the two girls, hopelessly irritating and implausible, but I hardly think you can blame the script. Teens that send texts with hearts to each other while they're in the same classroom are irritating by default. The only character that I personally found truly annoying was Kevin Durand's serial killer Lowell (according to the credits that's his name, although I'm sure they call him Lehmann instead). He's the least competent killer in history and gets his butt whooped by a couple of teen drama queens no less than three times. "Tragedy Girls" is not an excessively gory film, but a handful of death scenes are both gruesome and utmost ingenious. Notably memorable moments include the combination of a poor girl's head and a buzz saw, Craig Robinson versus a dumbbell and a subtly genius "Cannibal Holocaust" tribute. This latter sequence probably won't get noticed by the youngest genre fanatics, but it does prove that MacIntyre knows his classics. His directing skills are more adequate, by the way. Add to this a pleasingly grim (albeit foreseeable) finale, and the overall end result is that "Tragedy Girls" is one of the more satisfying genre efforts of the 2010's.
PS: just in case you're wondering, this user comment's title is inspired by lyrics that are courtesy of The Bee Gees. Who?
