[Editorial] Tragedy Girls-Friendship is Magically Macabre

We love our Final Girls in slasher movies. We love their capacity for survival and ability to overcome the killer. But what if they are one and the same? How does that work? What effect does it have on the typical slasher setup? 

Right from the first scene it’s clear that Tyler MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls is doing something interesting. In a lonely makeout spot, two teens are enjoying some alone time, a strange noise is heard, so far pretty clichéd. However, when the machete-wielding masked killer turns up the girl is ready with a trip line, taser, and blunt force trauma when all else fails. Here we are introduced to best friends Sadie Cunningham and McKayla Hooper (named for the directors of Friday the 13th Sean Cunningham and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Tobe Hooper) who have captured the killer Lowell, played with unhinged aplomb by Kevin Durand. Not to bring him to justice, but to learn from him. It turns out these girls are killers in training who are looking for someone to help them refine their craft before they graduate high school, all while reporting on their own killings on their blog, The Tragedy Girls, to gain fame and recognition both online and in their small American town. 

Since its release in 2017, Tragedy Girls has been the definition of “hidden gem”. It has great dark humour, plenty of blood for gore fans, fantastic lead performances from Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp, and it has a smart sense of self-awareness, although without needing to directly reference or name-drop too many other horror movies. This is a movie that, if it had been given a full wide release, could have enjoyed the kind of appreciation and discussion as recent films like Freaky, Ready or Not, and the new Scream and Slumber Party Massacre films. But really having to work to find it just makes it all the more satisfying a watch, as well as incredibly twisted fun.

These girls are, to put it in very oversimplified terms, psychopaths, but ones that you end up enjoying spending some time with. On the outside they are average happy highschool students with loving families and activities like prom committee and cheerleading. There is no evidence in the girls’ lives of things we would typically associate with serial killers, they simply are the way they are and enjoy it. What makes them distinct though is their bond with each other. The girls are, in essence, two halves of a whole with Sadie as the more focussed and planning of the pair and McKayla as the passionate and impulsive one. The only time they veer off track are due to people who threaten that dynamic. Their selection of victims is a combination of teenage petty and practical reasons chosen just as much for annoyance or stealing their clout as the risk they could pose to the girls’ plans. In particular McKayla’s ex-boyfriend Toby, a great cameo by Josh Hutcherson, who affects McKayla’s focus and wouldn’t promote the girls on his own more popular blog, and Jack Quaid’s Jordan, who not only is something of an emotional blind spot for Sadie but also grows more suspicious of McKayla’s behaviour, are victims who pose more of an emotional threat. Each girl displays an extreme level of jealousy at anything that takes their BFF’s attention away from them.

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Sadie and McKayla are also very typical teens in that we almost never see them without their phones-social media is as essential as life to them. In some ways Tragedy Girls conveys the concepts of online fame and infamy much better than the similarly-themed Scream 4. Maybe this is because we spend so much time with Sadie and McKayla, are in their point of view and know them and their personalities rather than getting all the information about why they do what they do in a final post-discovery madness monologue. There’s also the fact that that, at the heart of it, their motivation is relatable. Not the killing people part (please don’t call the police on me) but the feeling of not mattering and needing to make an impact on the world. It’s a very common human feeling, but one that is exacerbated by the nature of the internet. We live in an increasingly online-based world, and with over 397 million users on a website like Twitter it can feel next to impossible to stand out without some kind of niche or angle. Granted, murder might not seem like the best niche to make for yourself, but even that isn’t the most outlandish concept in the film, albeit with a more subdued real-world counterpart. The internet has made it incredibly easy for true crime interest and fandom to blossom, with the rise of podcasts and online sleuth communities dedicated to examining cold cases, although both these things have their controversies. There is also a real-world darker side to the interest with people who fixate on serial killers to the point of fetishization which is reflected in the film when we see that Sadie has a picture of Jeffery Dahmer in her locker. The girls’ videos have a quirky charm to them but unfortunately, one of the few faults of the film is that we don’t get to see more of these.. The online world is also frequently visualised, with likes and follower counts, an echo of how (as studies have shown) positive social media interactions are a quick and easy fix of happiness and human desire for attention.

In the end though it’s not just about the fame or the likes. It’s about friendship. When Lowell escapes and Sadie survives the attack on her and Jordan, she gets everything she’s wanted in terms of recognition, essentially becoming the traditional final girl. However, it’s without McKayla in a montage of longing that would put most romantic comedies to shame that we see how unsatisfied she is. Despite the opportunity to have a conventional “happily ever after”, when push comes to shove Sadie is happier in the role of the killer, because that’s where she gets to be herself with the person she genuinely cares about. There’s no point in building something if you don’t have the person you did it with by your side. 

So what happens when the final girls are also the killers? The short answer is you have a great time. The longer one is you get Tragedy Girls, a funny and smart slasher that plays with expectations and gives us an entertaining, if twisted, celebration of female friendship that is #KILLER.

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