"The Final Girls" LIVES ON
After coming out as a critical hit and festival favorite earlier this year (see next news item) The Final Girls is having an after life as a modern cult classic and Midnight Movie; being screened across the country from San Fransisco to NYC to Chicago to Marfa Texas.
CHECK OUT
Badass NYC STREET ART TAKEOVER to support Sunshine Cinema Midnights!
Legendary Drag Queen PEACHES CHRIST Screens Final Girls in San Fransisco with A PRE SHOW DANCE NUMBER INSPIRED BY THE MOVIE!!
Comic-Con FINAL SWIRLS I-SCREAM TRUCK
“The Final Girls” TOUCHES A CHORD
ON OVER 20 BEST OF 2015 LISTS
ROLLING STONE
FILM COMMENT
COLLIDER
BUZZFEED
FANGORIA
NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC’S PICK
Neil Genzlinger chooses The Final Girls as a NYTimes Critics’ Pick!
ROTTEN TOMATOES
Certified FRESH
QUENTIN TARANTINO
Showed up opening night in Los Angeles and laughed, cheered and cried.
STEPHEN KING
Tweets his love: “THE FINAL GIRLS is really great, a sweet horror movie that winds up feeling like MOONRISE KINGDOM.”
WINNER
PEOPLE CHOICE AWARD TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
OPENING NIGHT FILM SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE/BEST SCREENPLAY SITGES FILM FESTIVAL
BEST FEATURE STANLEY FILM FESTIVAL
BEST FEATURE MILE HIGH FILM FESTIVAL
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Across the country where beautiful Drag Queens recreate scenes from the film. (CLICK TO WATCH)
NEW YORK CITY STREET ART TAKEOVER to support Sunshine Cinema Midnights!
YOUTUBE FAN REACTIONS
Flood the internet and are so genuine and enthusiastic (CLICK TO WATCH)
REVIEWS
One of the most original, imaginative, and visually gorgeous films of the year. It’s amazing to see filmmakers like this take huge risks to try and create something new.
-The Cinemaholics
His sophomore feature is a sharp, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly heartfelt homage. It’s a gimmicky premise, perhaps, but a highly effective one.
-Film Comment
The final showdown is a thing of beauty, but it never attempts to be scary or menacing. Instead, the heart of this mostly bloodless picture is Max’s relationship with her mother’s film character, and there are some genuinely touching moments about grieving and the acceptance of loss.
-The Village Voice
“Come the end of “The Final Girls,” I found myself pleased, moved even, by this inherently ephemeral mother-daughter story. It’s true that Max no longer has her mother to goof around with. Her passing is permanent. There’s no incoming resurrection here. But she can still be revisited on the silver screen, her youth and beauty on full display. And those images are forever.”
-RogerEbert.com
The Final Girls is a playful deconstruction that ultimately packs a surprisingly affecting punch… in addition to pop culture irreverence, it provides some unexpectedly touching closure.
-LA Times
“Strauss-Schulson’s mind must be a beautiful thing, because
The Final Girls glistens in a sparkly, creative light that’s so vibrantly
appealing. Everything is saturated in this olden feel of early horror
films, yet the crisp quality and outstanding production designs are
captured in the clean light of current technology. Colors pop off the
screen, bringing to life minute details like woodland flowers and lively
counselor uniforms, but even during some of the darker scenes, settings
turn into fantasy worlds that only cinema can create. There’s an absolutely
gorgeous sequence at the end involving Malin Akerman’s character and the
film’s killer that takes place in a lush, grassy field, set against thunderous
lightning clouds that spew bits of purple electricity. With such radiant colors
playing off one another, Strauss-Schulson’s vision comes to life like a work
of art, and even though most of the film showcases such tantalizing
examples of intricate wonder, Akerman’s showdown provides the perfect
snapshot of a young, talented filmmaker whose passion is poured into
every single frame.”
-We Got This Covered
The Final Girls is bracing for its emotional sincerity. An antidote to the smugly clever The Cabin in the Woods, Todd Strauss-Schulson’s film is built on personal trauma… Strauss-Schulson and screenwriters M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller take their characters seriously, which adds surprising weight to the film’s comic playfulness.
When Max suggests to Nancy, the role Amanda plays in Camp Bloodbath, that perhaps she could escape the world of the film within a film and achieve the future she’s envisioned for herself, the moment expresses as much Max’s desire to have her mother back as it does an implicit call for a walking horror archetype to step outside of her genre-dictated box. The most subversive aspect of The Final Girls, then, is the grenade it lobs at the sadism inherent in the slasher genre by managing to make us care about these two women as more than just body-bag fodder.
-Slant Magazine
What can I say, this one made my night! I was smiling the whole way through! Hope it does the trick for you too!
-JOBLO.COM
Every single angle and frame are meticulously filmed with brazen attention to detail that transcends the screen. This enables the imagery to feel invigorating and organic. The set design and color scheme are astoundingly gorgeous. The juxtaposition of real life horror and horror movie life creates for a provocative discussion as we are submersed into the ambitions and fears of our protagonists. This movie does not root for death, but instead inspires to teach us the importance of lasting relationships and the appreciation of our fleeting life.
-Movie Pilot
The richest material, of course, is in Max’s renewed relationship with Nancy. But director Todd Strauss-Schulson and the film’s writers and production team bring a sophisticated, detailed touch to “The Final Girls”’ concept, from the gauzy, garish genre look of “Camp Bloodbath” to a spectacular, climactic battle between monster and warrior-girl.
-Seattle Times
Ultimately “The Final Girls” is about how movies can be a tool for helping us overcome the pain of loss, a lesson we don’t expect to learn from a slasher film. We expect the characters in these films, especially the female ones, to be disposable, but “The Final Girls” makes us care about Max and Amanda’s future.
-The Examiner
Every now and then a movie comes along and goes beyond what it should be. It breaks genre lines and surprisingly finds a place in your heart. “The Final Girls” slashes its way into that special place.
-Film Fad
I rarely need to see a movie more than once before assessing it, but in the case of Todd Strauss-Schulson’s The Final Girls, I watched it twice in twenty-four hours. That was two weeks ago, and key scenes still loop in my head. In fact, the PG-13-rated film is practically bloodless but that’s okay, because the movie’s intense emotional core is just as likely to rip your guts out and show them to you.
Believe it or not, the climactic dance scene, set to “Bette Davis Eyes”, is one of the most meaningful and touching moments I’ve seen in a film all year.
-Kick Seat
No sane group of men would attempt to blend horror, comedy and drama together in a way that leaves the coldest of genre fans crying like a baby. Now if only more people in Hollywood could be this crazy. I loved this movie and suspect that many others will too. That’s all you need to know, anymore information would devalue the impact this masterpiece will have on you.
-The Devil Eyes
It is, hands down, one of my favorite movies of the year. This might be a comedy but it isn’t eye-rolling like “Scream Queens.” These characters might be tropes, but they are still well-rounded which is why the final act works so beautifully.
-Edge Charlotte
Is it clear enough that I loved “The Final Girls?” Because I did. From the opening frame to the final credits blooper. The film not only is a hoot to watch, its surprisingly engaging in the emotional sense, with refreshingly likable characters that are filled out nicely by familiar faces. The aesthetic, music, editing, all fantastic as well. The ending of “The Final Girls” leaves us in the midst of a possible sequel, which typically, is a somewhat annoying trope to leave a film with, but in a film like “The Final Girls,” I want to see more, I want to see more right now.
-Niner Times
MORE REVIEWS BELOW IN SXSW/TIFF NEWS
"The Final Girls" PRESS TOUR
It’s been a hilarious whirlwind press tour for The Final Girls. Below are our favorite pieces that give you some insights into the making of the film:
Beautiful GAWKER interview about grief:
I think it’s OK to talk about death as if it’s not the most depressing thing in the world. It’s not the most depressing thing. Sadness is not a bad thing. Sadness is letting go. Depression is holding on. Sadness is cleansing. In my view, the sadness or the suffering is what connects all of us. It’s what makes us feel less alone.
In Depth SPLITSIDER interview about Comedy/Emotion:
I don’t go to the movies just to escape. There’s nothing that can cut through that sick veneer of ironic detachment or anxiety like a movie. I can go to a movie, and it just slices through me and touches the most tender part of me — the most human part of me. I go to the movies not to escape but to reconnect.
VIDEO of Malin Akerman and Todd Strauss-Schulson getting GOOFY with ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Todd discussing the making of Final Girls on TAKE TWO for NPR
Alex Pardee’s Radical Final Girls Character Posters
Behind the Scenes of Operation Booby Trap and Todd’s Pre-Production Process
The Final Girls Wins at TIFF
The Final Girls won the first runner up prize for the People Choice Award at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival this year.
Not only that, we had a blast and the critical acclaim keeps rolling in:
“It quickly becomes apparent that this is far more than its high concept might suggest. What could have easily become an exhausting pastiche throwback film, reveals itself as an infections, joyous love letter to the genre and perhaps more surprising, a highly emotional story about love, loss and how humans learn to deal when life becomes a horror film.”
-Cinefamily.com
“A bunch of the credit also goes to the director, Todd Strauss-Schulson. He has a knack for milking the comedy out of every situation, and elevating fun moments to iconic status. But this isn’t just silly fun — there are some harrowing, tragic moments too. I won’t spoil anything, but I will say that there’s a great moment of truly heartfelt character interaction followed by tragedy that is as good as anything I’ve seen in film this year. And it all hinges on outstanding direction. It is hard enough to really pull off any one of action, comedy, pathos, and horror, and here he juggles them all to powerful effect.”
-Aintitcoolnews.com
Over 1,000,000 Trailer Views In 4 days!
The Final Girls TRAILER is out and it broke the internet! Over 1,000,000 hits since its launch on Friday!! We were also a TRENDING TWITTER TOPIC and outlets from Wired to Cosmopolitan to The New York Times all wrote about us.
Thank you for the support, keep spreading the word and we’ll see you at the theatre on October 9th.
"The Final Girls" Kills at SXSW!
THE FINAL GIRLS premiered opening night at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas for the SXSW Film Festival. The room sat 2000 people, there were 2 applause breaks and someone yelled “this movie is fucking rad!!” during the screening.
It doesn’t get much better than that. Thanks to everyone who came out and made it a night to remember.
REVIEWS
“The Final Girls is more than just a brilliant high-concept setup — it’s also
an incredibly fun homage to ’80s slasher films and their tropes as well as
a surprisingly sweet look at grief, moving forward and the things we
sacrifice for those we love. Director Todd Strauss-Schulson shows genuine
affection for the genre and its characters, and he brings that heart along
with a gleeful sense of humor and real creativity… The surprise here is in
how much genuine emotion and heart is on display in the relationship
between mother and daughter and friends. Her refusal to let her mom go again, to let her die a second time, is given emotional weight far beyond the genre’s usual limits, and it adds enormously to the film.”
-Film School Rejects
“The Final Girls is a stylish, often dynamic film… established here is Strauss-Schulson’s verve for visual storytelling. Rather than hold on a
Wide of Amanda’s car fly down the open road, for instance,
Strauss-Schulson’s high camera kicks into gear the second she drives into
frame. The energy is almost immediately destabilizing and totally
refreshing. The Final Girls is more comedy than horror… a type of movie not contemporarily known for embracing film grammar and the picturesque.”
-Shock Till You Drop
“The Final Girls” is a brilliant, emotional satire of classic slasher
films… The way director Todd Strauss-Schulson incorporates
nostalgia and Visual humor is remarkable…The delivery for every
joke is perfect. Although it pays tribute to all the great slasher films,
it manages to stay original and never gets bogged down in references….
The film is hilarious, but it’s also surprisingly tear jerking at times because
of the strong relationship between Max and her mother. In the first five
minutes, Strauss-Schulson builds their bond and makes us believe in it.
Every scene they share is the most dramatic and heartwarming in the
movie….“The Final Girls” is a near-masterpiece of a horror-comedy.
The film goes further by focusing on emotion and relationships. As more
comedic films appear to mock old traditions of other movies, it’s clear
that they definitely need to look toward “The Final Girls” for inspiration.”
-The Daily Texan
“The best part of the film is a quality that surprised me – the poignancy
of the central relationship between Max and Amanda.
Farmiga and Akerman are so much the heart of this film, and the movie
becomes very unexpectedly about the lengths to which we go to honor the
memory of the loved ones we’ve lost… It’s got some fun, exciting set
pieces, including a lightning-lit dance sequence climax that made our
audience cheer and also choked me up a bit. The Final Girls is a goofy
blast, but it’s also a movie that feels, and that makes for quite an unexpected gem.”
-Badass Digest
“It’s meta, it’s clever, it’s heartfelt, and it’s awesome… I saw it on opening night and after leaving the theater, my first thought was, “This is one hell of a film. Godspeed to the rest of the movies here to try and top this firecracker…” The Final Girls is a crowd-pleaser. It’s is the most fun I’ve ever had at a festival screening and I want to see it again and again. It was so hard to hear the dialogue at times from everyone laughed so loud, so hard. This is movie is pop madness.”
– Twitchfilm.com
“The Final Girls has rock solid performances across the board, but it is a
highly stylized piece and there’s absolutely no way it would have worked
as well had director Todd Strauss-Schulson not had such a firm handle on the visuals and tone of the film.”
-Collider
“The Final Girls is really something special as it manages to pull of its comedic and emotional elements with finesse. For every laugh you belt out you may also shed a tear as well, as Strauss-Schulson explores the trappings of nostalgia and grief and if one can ever truly move on from tragedy. The Final Girls faultlessly walks the line between horror and comedy and does so with a wealth of genuine emotion and heart. Like Camp Bloodbath, there’s a massive following in this film’s future. But unlike the benchmark bad-good film of Nancy’s career, The Final Girls is just damn good.”
-BloodyDisgusting
“The Final Girls is the last movie of LA Film Fest 2015 for me, and it’s also hands-down the best movieI saw at this year’s festival…The most surprising element of The Final Girls is its honest-to-God emotional core.
Farmiga brings a brokenness and vulnerability to this role that makes us instantly root for her, and her scenes together with Akerman provide the movie’s beating heart as hilarious chaos occurs around them. It’s all about coming to terms with the ones we’ve lost, which is a strange thing to be about in a movie that features people dying left and right, but that dichotomy is what makes The Final Girls so great.
The Final Girls is one of the best love letters to a genre I’ve ever seen.”
-Geek Tyrant
LA TIMES FULL WRITE UP OF THE SXSW WORLD PREMIERE
VARIETY LISTS FINAL GIRLS AS BREAKOUT MOVIE OF SXSW
Epic in-depth Interview for Twitchfilm.com
Todd talks with Chase Whale about the inspirations for Final Girls, visual comedy, multi-pocketed vests and cat’s with diabetes.
Enjoy!
SXSW 2015 Interview: THE FINAL GIRLS, Director Todd Strauss-Schulson Talks About His Killer New Film
Watch Post SXSW Premiere Q+A with Entire Cast!
Todd, Taissa, Malin, Adam, Alia, Thomas, Nina, Alexander, Angela, Tory, co-writer Mark Fortin and Janet Pierson discuss the making of The Final Girls in this rawkus 20 minute clip.
The Final Girls: World Premiere
Todd’s new feature film, “The Final Girls”, will be premiering at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival on Friday the 13th!!
SXSW has been great to Ulterior over the years, screening two of our short films: Mano-A-Mano in 2008 and Big Pussy the following year in 2009.
The Final Girls
The Final Girls is an unconventional comedy about Max, a high school senior, who is mysteriously transported with her friends into a 1980s horror film that starred Max’s mother, a celebrated scream queen.
Trapped inside the movie, Max finds herself reunited with her mom, who she lost in real life. Together with Max’s friends, they must fend off the camp counselors’ raging hormones, battle a deranged machete-wielding killer and find a way to escape the movie and make it back home.
The film was produced by Michael London and Janice Williams.
The rest of the festival lineup was announced earlier today in Variety
You can read more about The Final Girls and the SXSW Festival here The Final Girls SXSW Page
All's Fair: Winner!
The Casting Society of America (CSA) gave out their annual awards this past Thursday night and Alyssa Weisberg, casting director for All’s Fair, won the Artios Award for Best Short Film!
CSA members are honored in over twenty different casting categories, for work in Film, Television and Theatre. The criteria are originality, creativity and the contribution of casting to the overall quality of a project. Nominees and winners are voted on by members in good standing of the Casting Society of America.
For more about the event and a full list of winners, click here: Hollywood Reporter
All's Fair: Winner!
All’s Fair won the BEST COMEDY award at the:
2014 Miami Short Film Festival
Thanks to everyone who came out and voted for the film!
All's Fair: Official Selection
All’s Fair has been asked to screen at the: 2014 Cucalorus Film Festival
The festival takes place in Wilmington, North Carolina from
November 12th – 16th.
We will post screening and ticket information as soon as we have it.
All's Fair: Official Selection
All’s Fair has been asked to screen at the: 2014 Miami Short Film Festival
The festival runs from December 5th – 12th.
We will post screening and ticket information as soon as we have it.
All's Fair: Official Selection
All’s Fair has been asked to screen at the 2014 Calgary International Film Festival
The festival runs from September 18-28
We will post screening and ticket information as soon as we have it.
*Academy accredited festival
All's Fair: Winner!
All’s Fair wins the audience award at the:
2014 LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival
Thanks to everyone who came out and voted for the film!
Todd's Second Feature Film
Todd will begin pre-production next week on his second feature film, FINAL GIRLS, starring Malin Akerman and Taissa Farmiga. Michael London is producing through his Groundswell Productions banner.
For more information, check out the VARIETY story.
Valibation: Official Selection
Valibation has been asked to screen at the following festivals:
2013 St. Louis International Film Festival
Package: Shorts 11: Crime Dramas & Thrillers
Sun, Nov 24th at 8:30pm
VENUE:
Tivoli Theatre
6350 Delmar Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63130
*Academy accredited festival
Tickets can be purchased here: SLIFF
2013 CALGARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Package: STRANGE SINEMA
Sunday, September 22nd, 2013 – 12:00pm
Friday, September 27th, 2013 – 5:15pm
Sunday, September 29th, 2013 – 7:30pm
VENUE:
Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Market Cinemas
200 Barclay Parade SW #200,
Calgary, AB T2P 4R5, Canada
+1 403-263-3167
Tickets can be purchased here: Strange Sinema
*Academy accredited festival
Saturday, September 7, 2013
10:00 PM
VENUE:
Laemmle NoHo 7
5240 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
818-762-4600 – Direct
Tickets can be purchased here: LA Short Fest Tickets
*Academy accredited festival
2013 PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL SHORTFEST
Saturday, June 22, 2013
7:00 PM
VENUE:
Camelot Theatres
Tickets can be purchased here: WTF? Tickets
*Academy accredited festival
Valibation Premieres
For our newest short film, VALIBATION, we commissioned artist Daniel Spenser Levine to create 5 poster concepts for the film. He had so much fun working on the project that he made 7.
Check out all 7 posters here: http://danielspenser.com/Valibation
And if you would like to own one of the posters, please email us at:contact@ulteriorproductions.com
Warner Bros. Picks Up Rascal Raccoon
Warner Bros. has picked up Rascal Raccoon’s Raging Revenge, an Oni Press graphic novel, with Matt Fogel attached to adapt and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas helmer Todd Strauss-Schulson attached to direct.
Eric Gitter will produce via Oni Press’ production banner Closed on Mondays, while Stauss-Schulson’s production partner Ken Franchi will exec produce via the duo’s Ulterior Productions.
Rascal Raccoon, created by Brendan Hay and Justin Wagner, is set in the a place called Toonie Terrace, where good-natured Toonies rambunctiously and without fail outwit the Meanies, who are trying to do them in. The story is set in motion when Rascal Raccoon finally and unexpectedly kills his longtime nemesis, Jumpin’ Jackalope. Needing a new target, he sets his sights on the animator who created him.
The project is intended to be a live-action/CGI hybrid.
