One of the better horror-comedies in recent memory.
Borrowing its themes and tonal cues from sources as disparate as Clueless, Heathers, the Scream movies, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Nightcrawler, and Lucky McKee's bonkers All Cheerleaders Die, Tyler MacIntyre's Tragedy Girls is a glittery, energetic, wicked, gory, enjoyably impish throwback slasher flick for the narcissist Instagram generation. It plays like Amy Hecklering's Clueless, but if Cher and Dionne were meaner, even more vain, and also serial killers. That they are serial killers, however, doesn't mean they're not lovable.
The titular Tragedy Girls are a pair of high school cheerleaders named Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand, Negasonic Teenage Warhead from Deadpool) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp, Storm from X-Men: Apocalypse), two pretty young women who live in the top half of their high school's pecking order. Sadie and McKayla, partly out of extreme boredom, but mostly because they wish to build their own @TragedyGirls brand, have taken to murdering the occasional local or classmate in the hopes they could “cover” the violence for their fledgling pop news site. They then would organize vigils, be filmed wringing their hands, and generally foment the usual narrative of personal tragedy as has been spelled out for them by years of constant media consumption.
By the time we join them, our gleeful little killers have been at their bloody work for some time, and are unfazed by death and violence. Sadie and McKayla, with witty panache and weary ironic detachment, casually seek out their victims via catty cafeteria conversations, sussing out how to stage a theatrical crime scene, and what would make a better story. Oh yes, and for advice on the matter, they have also kidnapped an actual serial killer (Kevin Durand), whom they keep chained up in their shed, and whose terrifying escape is pretty much inevitable.
The humor of Tragedy Girls – and it's plenty funny – comes from how naturally our twisted protagonists embrace their own murderous sociopathy; In wanting to acquire more Twitter followers, and aching to have something – anything – of interest happen in their sleepy Midwestern town, it only follows logically that our anti-heroines should instigate a violent crime spree.
They don't revel in their crimes, nor do they feel remorse. Murder is simply the best way to get a little clout in the world of lazy, half-interested smartphone users and ephemeral internet fame. If it bleeds, it goes viral. Likes are more important than lives.
And while its social satire is funny and delicious and handled deftly – there is no mawkish preachiness at work – Tragedy Girls works best because of its surprising amount of heart. The protagonists are monsters, of course, but their chemistry and friendship is sweet, warm, and unassailable. They have their own shared vernacular and their personalities, appealingly, mesh. McKayla, the bored rich girl, resents that she might be the lesser of the two, and Sadie, the leader, clearly likes being in charge. When their social schism is brought to light by the Durand character, you feel that something great might actually be stake; the natural kinship of two teenage girls.
The Verdict
Tragedy Girls is a gleeful blast of subversive energy in a landscape populated by too much safety; One's horror films should feel a little over the edge. It should not be surprising if Tragedy Girls, given that it finds a passionate enough audience and a few years to simmer in the pop consciousness, should become one the genre's next cult classics.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire