SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.The trailer that Max is watching at the beginning of the movie has this stupidly funny moment where the narrator talks about the characters will be saying Kum-ba-no instead of Kum-ba-ya. While it’s vapid, I can’t help but laugh at it every single time. It’s one of those so-bad-it’s-good moments that the movie nails at delivering.

2. I love the scene where the group runs away from Billy after he’s killed Duncan and are forced into this endless loop with Tina greeting them as Blake (Tory N. Thompson) tells them not to go. The arc shot is disorienting and highlights how the group is trapped and is unable to escape. The whole moment is absurd and plays like something out of Sartre’s No Exit , with the constant whiplash from Tina to Blake and back highlighting the fictional characters’ programming in the world. They can respond to new events but they’re still stuck into pre-programmed loops which begs the question of who’s really controlling the situation.

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3.Duncan coming back to life as Kurt and Paula (Chloe Bridges) escape and is immediately killed again as a result. It’s funny and shocking but raises the question of how he was revived within the runtime of the movie. The bigger issue is that it removes tension from the group’s later deaths because we know that they will most likely be revived even if we don’t know the mechanism for how that happens. Absent a larger purpose, the revival only hurts the impact of the “real” groups’ deaths. I didn’t feel anything when Gertie and Vickie died because I knew they’d most likely be back like Duncan.

4.Tina’s dance scene/strip-tease to entire Billy to attack is funnier than it has any right to be. Trimbur adds so much over-the-top energy to the way she strips down, while making sure to show her horror in her face, that it feels like AI getting confused and breaking down (which makes sense given the plot). The build-up and execution of the scene is perfect and Tina’s unfortunate death is the cherry on the pie. It’s like of course that would happen.

5. While I like Vicki’s eventual revelation of her backstory with Max, the moment makes me wish that we got to see more of Max’s school life before and after her mom’s death. It feels like there’s a missing opportunity to add a few more emotional beats and characterization and the explanation from Vicki comes off a bit hollow as a result. I like the idea, but the execution feels lacking compared to the more serious events in the movie.

6. The flashback moments are absolutely amazing, from the way Gertie gets blood on her and carries it with her to the real world to the way that Nancy can forcefully use it to transport characters to a different spacetime within the Camp Bloodbath movie proper. This is how to use effectively use a trope in a clever way. It’s not just a gag. It’s an actual plot device.

7. What shocks me the most about the movie is how bad-ass the epic confrontation shots with Billy end up looking. Both the scene of him jumping from the window and his eventual final confrontation with Max look like something out of an action-packed samurai movie. It makes me wish there were more action moments with Billy, but I think that would’ve made the genre-feel of the movie weird so I appreciate what we got. In particular, the final battle gets you totally amped, not just because of Nancy’s death, but because of how raw Max gets to be in terms of exuding hero vibes. The music blaring in the background as the sky turns absurd neon colors adds to the tension and Max being super proficient with her machete only makes it feel all the more slick.

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8.The ending and homage to Halloween II makes me wish there was a sequel. It feels like Strauss-Schulson had some cool ideas of where to go with everything with the way the ending credits come up and how all the characters wake up in the hospital, so I’d like to see how he actually resolves the larger questions of how they all got trapped into the movie. I can only hope that something new comes from it.