Tragedy Girls is being marketed as Clueless meets Scream, which is pretty accurateâitâs a slasher parody, but this time, the teenage girls are the hunters instead of the hunted. Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) and McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) are the high-school BFFs behind a true crime vlog that follows a string of murders in their small Midwestern town. But after Sadie and McKayla capture the serial killer, they embark on their own killing spreeâwith their bloodlust intensifying with each like and follow.
Though itâs risky to make a film with sadistic murderers as the protagonists, this duo is disarmingly likable. And theyâre funny: At one point, McKayla describes her motorcycle-riding ex (Josh Hutcherson, aka Peeta from The Hunger Games) as a âcrotch rocketâ and a âhottie with a hog.â Youâll root for these baby serial killers, even as theyâre dismembering classmates in the school gym.
Itâs the dark little details that make Tragedy Girls great. (The high schoolâs underwater, Titanic-themed prom is billed as âa night to remember.â) The filmâs playful, grim tone is perfectly mirrored by its soundtrack, specifically the Cultsâ song âAlways Forever,â which sounds as sticky-sweet as corn syrup fake blood. (Speaking of fake blood, prepare for lots.)
Tragedy Girls has one fatal flaw: The only traceable motive for Sadie and McKaylaâs madness is their black-mirror vanity and mutual petty jealousy. That seems a little too dependent on reductive stereotypes about the dangers of teenage girls using social media in 2017. Ingrid Goes West made the same mistake with its female characters. Andâsurprise!âboth movies were written and directed by men.
Honestly, though, even that couldnât stop me from loving Tragedy Girls. Itâs delightfully fucked up and challenges what it means to be a scream queen.