2015

This is one of those movies that makes fun of slasher flicks but also is an endearing love letter to them as well. Unlike the parodies of Scary Movie franchise, this one becomes almost meta, as if the characters become both self-aware and dragged into an alternate universe at the same time.

The main character, Max (who is coincidentally played by Taissa Farmiga, Vera’s sister – I’m patronizing that family this week, I guess) is the daughter of an 80s scream queen who is failing as an actress in present day. She then ends up failing as a living person, when a car accident kills her and leaves Max a psychologically damaged teenager (as if there are any other kinds in LA).

Three years later and Max is still trying to cope with the death of her mother, when her best friend’s step-brother basically begs her to show up at a screening of her mom’s most famous movie, Camp Bloodbath. It’s pretty dick  move to force the daughter of a dead woman to relive her finest moments. And also make her relive that time her mom got naked and had simulated sex on screen.

Max brings her best friend and tutor/love interest along for moral support. In some strange string of events, the movie theater catches on fire and the group of friends try to escape through the movie screen. Instead, they end up going WAY over the rainbow and end up actually in the movie world of Camp Bloodbath with the characters, including Max’s mother.

Since they have all seen the movie, they know how the movie ends and they are just sitting ducks waiting for the killer to show up. However, the characters hold the same dumb logic as they do in the movie and therefore won’t believe these interlopers and their predictions of the future. Instead they try their best to stave off death for themselves (while still letting the other characters get murdered) and somehow make it back home.

Unfortunately, they all develop bonds with the movie characters and don’t want them to die, so they try to save them. Obviously they can’t, because if no one dies, no one can escape. This movie’s themes go way deeper than I can wrap my head around sometimes.

After 92 minutes (classic horror movie length) the cross-dimensional time issue is resolved and the friends are all safe again. Or are they?