I was going to do a Final Girls vs. Final Girls Support Group anyway but the trailer for the new Scream hitting today does make it even better…
“I’m Sydney Prescott of course I have a gun.”
I feel teenage nostalgia coming on!
I finally, finally read Final Girls by Riley Sager and now concur it’s his best. It’s about Quincy ten or so years off being a final girl when perhaps the unacknowledged leader of the small group is killed and a final girl long hidden shows up pushing for all kinds of answers.
If you look at both of these books as horror movies I’d put this in a strong sequel category. We’re dealing with all kinds of trauma and the distrust surviving something like that would breed.
Quincy is pretty fucked up and does some messed up stuff that kind of gets hand waved but I still rooted for her to get out of this. And as to the mystery well it was one of those where you do kind of figure it out but enough realistic options are presented that I wasn’t like oh yeah, this is what’s going to happen.
Recommend: Yes.
But that’s the thing to me even if they do stupid stuff and aren’t always completely likable you do want to root for the final girl. You want them to live. (At least I find that I tend to.)
And that’s why I disliked…
Lynnette is 22 years past her trauma and while I admired her survival skills in the beginning and know that you can’t put a time limit on getting over trauma (you probably never really do…)
Oh I didn’t like her at all. She’s kind of an idiot and horrible person. I mean the one bit that stands out to me from this book she and a couple of others break a friends wife out of hospice where she’s dying under the auspices of taking her home (but Lynnette really needs information) and when the cops close in cause Lynnette herself is obviously in trouble at that point she leaves the woman in a park where she dies with a random man who we later find out is found kissing her dead body.
I just couldn’t with Lynnette.
And if we’re talking horror movie verse this is kind of like the 5th or 6th in a series were you know it’s long done and the resolution is meh and never as good as could be.
Recommend: Negative.
Though I always recommend Grady Hendrix’s Horrorstor for a good spooky Halloween read. If nothing else it will keep you from Ikea for a while.
And I am down for Scream 5! Will it be as good as the original? Doubt it though a girl can dream. It does bring back fond memories of high school though 🙂 But I will not be happy if Dewey doesn’t make it out!
I have mixed feelings about the Scream trailer. It feels a little too serious to me. The Scream movies were genuine horror films, but Wes Craven’s meta humor was a staple of the franchise. That may or may not be lost with the new director.
Good point and you would think with the set-up there’d be a lot of room for that type of humor. But hopefully this is only the first trailer! Though it certainly wouldn’t be the first movie or series that started taking itself to seriously.
This is an excellent post! Scream is my favorite movie of all time. I actually just saw the 25th anniversary screening of the original movie the day before and I’m really happy with the trailer. It looks like it is going to be fantastic.
I’m so happy you posted this comparison about Final Girls vs. The Final Girl Support Group. Final Girls is my favorite Riley Sager novel. I would also recommend Survive the Night if you haven’t read that one yet. I read it in one sitting.
When I read Final Girls Support Group I had the same feelings as you. I really wanted to love this book too but I didn’t really like Lynette or the story. It wasn’t a bad read but it didn’t compare to Final Girls!
I don’t think I’ve seen Scream in a decade at least. Maybe a holiday time rewatch closer to the movie is in order? 🙂
I have Survive the NIght on my list for sure once I read that I’ve read all Sager and yeah discounting that I think Final Girls is my favorite.