Chattanoga Film Festival 2023– Slashers are having a revival. Just consider the success of the recent Scream movies or the Chucky TV series. Hopefully, this new slice and dice era will birth some new killers. Bad Girl Boogey is one such film. Parts of its premise and concept feel fresh and creative in comparison to all of the reboots, retreads, and sequels. It’s also very much a proud queer horror film made by a young trans director, Alice Maio Mackay, who was only 17 at the time of filming. The story centers around a mask with a long and storied history. In the opening minutes, we see a group of teens attempting to partake in some black magic badness, but things go horribly, horribly wrong. In short, the mask doesn’t necessarily make people kill. Instead, it gives them permission to murder. It unleashes their hatred against marginalized groups. It continually finds the right person to wear it, too, one bigot at a time. Fast forward several Halloweens later, and we’re introduced to our queer final girl, Angel (Lisa Fanto). She and her group of LGBTQ friends immediately become targets of the one who wears the mask. Early on, the boogeyman slaughters one of Angel’s best friends, and the final girl then spends a fair amount of time grieving, self-harming, and doing her best to process the trauma. She has constant visions of the killer. Fanto turns in an emotional performance here, and I sure wouldn’t mind seeing her in future horror films. She’s a bold final girl, tough, but vulnerable, too. However, if you pay attention, the killer isn’t too hard to guess, and that’s one of the film’s flaws. By the time of the reveal, it feels like a dead giveaway. This movie also needed stronger characterization. It’s difficult to care about the friend who dies early on because we barely spend any time getting to know her. Though Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker is killed within the first 15 minutes of Scream, we spend that entire time with her, before Ghostface guts her. Her death feels impactful because our attention is focused solely on her before she bites it. Before any of Laurie Strode’s friends die in Halloween, we also get to know them. One of Angel’s other besties, Dario (Iris Mcerlean), is given more screentime at least. I rarely say that a film should be longer, but this is only about 80 minutes long. Another 10-15 minutes of runtime would have allowed for more characterization, granting more weight to the deaths. That said, the film looks really, really cool, especially some of its red and blue tones. Like Mackay’s other feature, So Vam, there’s a meta aspect here, though not at the level of Scream. After seeing both features, it’s evident to me that Mackay really knows and loves her genre films. Oh, and the kills here are quite gruesome at times, which should please slasher fans. Mackay will only improve as a filmmaker. Bad Girl Boogey is self-aware, while at the same time, it doesn’t feel like a retread of every other slasher. This is one stylish, out and proud queer horror film by an impressive young talent.

7 Out of 10