Tragedy Girls, a twist on the slasher genre following two death-obsessed teenage girls who use their online show about real-life tragedies to send their small mid-western town into a frenzy and cement their legacy as modern horror legends.
Tyler MacIntyre‘s Tragedy Girls is a film at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival that I very nearly passed on. Not that there was anything in particular about it that was telling me to stay away. I didn’t know if this film about these two high school girls wouldn’t be just, much like high school girls, annoying. I am so glad I watched this movie!
Not only was it not annoying, it was one of my most enjoyable movie experiences of the year. It recalls the dark murderous high school comedies of the past, like Heathers or Jawbreaker, except these girls kill on purpose. Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) know that what they want is too be responsible for a good notorious killing spree before eventually settling down in life to have families. To their parents and everyone else they are model students, members of the cheer-leading squad, president and vice president of the prom committee, and creators and stars of an online show called Tragedy Girls that tracks the murders carried out by the local serial killer.
The unapologetic nature of the film and its characters is on full display in a brilliant opening scene in which Sadie has no issues sacrificing a classmate to draw out the killer, a man named Lowell (Kevin Durand). They trap him and keep him in a garage just outside of their small mid-western town. They want to learn from him . They’re not having any trouble in committing murder. Their problem is that so far the murders have appeared to look like accidents.
Tragedy Girls is very well written and very funny. While there are some familiar high school movie tropes in Tragedy Girls, MacIntyre does a masterful job of turning convention on its side. For a small period late in the second act, the film does begin to feel a slight lag. However, the film quickly rights itself and carries on to the end.
Shipp and Hildebrand are both amazing to watch in these roles. As these two girls, they discuss murdering their friends, including their boyfriends, with the same level of intensity they would a math quiz or the school lunch menu. Durand also gives a standout performance as the very confused Lowell who really doesn’t know what to make of these two.
Tragedy Girls is an over-the-top funny and violent farce that I can’t wait to enjoy again.
| Tragedy Girls | ||
| RATING: | UR |  |
| Runtime: | 1hr. 30Mins. | |
| Directed By: | ||
| Written By: | ||
