In 2015,Todd Strauss-Schulsonsliced open the screen and pulled a group of unsuspecting teens into an ‘80s slasher in his comedy horror flick,The Final Girls. Nearly a decade later, the film absolutely holds up with a dedicated fandom continuing to talk about it to this day. Although he’s also known for his work behindA Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmasand later projects includingIsn’t It Romantic, for many of us,The Final Girlswill forever be the first thing we think about when hearing the director’s name. Steeped in legend and lore, there are a lot of bits and pieces of behind-the-scenes history and rumors that have kept the production’s trivia growing.One of those fun tidbitsis how the movie’s original ending changed and why. During an interview with Collider’sPerri Nemiroffas part of theScary Perri Horror Series at Landmark Theatres, Strauss-Schulson cracked open the mystery and explained how the creative team initially envisioned the final moments to play out and why they scrapped it and went in a different direction.
Production teams can learn a lot from test screenings, and that’s exactly what Strauss-Schulson attributes to being the main drive behind the ending’s change. “We only did one test,” he says, “We learned in the test — it was helpful, actually — we learned in the test that people fell in love with that friend group. We only did one reshoot, which was the ending, and the original ending was that everyone really did die, and onlyMax (Taissa Farmiga)andAlexander Ludwigsurvive. They’re in the hospital, and that whole thing with the sequel, that was all the same, but it was only the two of them, and they were gonna have to get stuck in the sequel together.”
But, as the filmmaker would find out during the test screening, audiences were crushed to discover that the rest of the group was slaughtered. A testament to how well writersM.A. FortinandJoshua John Millerpenned the characters as well as theactors’ performances, audiences hated that all but two were killed off. “What we learned is, ‘Oh wait, so everyone really died? That’s so sad. We wanna see them back together again,’” Strauss-Schulson said of the feedback from test audiences. For those fans who are curious as to how the movie’s ending almost looked, Nemiroff shared a tip that the scene is included in the “deleted scenes” section of the bonus features.
Who’s in the Cast ofThe Final Girls?
Tapping a fun and recognizable cast for thesentimental horror comedy,The Final Girlsstars Farmiga in the leading role of Max Cartwright alongsideMalin Åkermanas Amanda Cartwright, Max’s mother and the star of the fictional slasher flick,Camp Bloodbath. Filling out the ensemble alongside Ludwig areNina Dobrev(The Vampire Diaries),Adam DeVine(Workaholics),Alia Shawkat(Search Party),Chloe Bridges(Pretty Little Liars),Thomas Middleditch(Silicon Valley), andAngela Trimbur(Quiz Lady).The Final Girlsis available to rent or buy in the U.S.
Rent ‘The Final Girls’
Watch Nemiroff’s full interview with Strauss-Schulson below:
The Final Girls (2015)
The Final Girlsrocks a genius core concept; a group of friends walk into an 80s horror movie and must survive the film. The meta elements of the story are genius, but what takesThe Final Girlsto that next level is its heart. The movie starsTaissa Farmigaas Max, the daughter of Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman), one of the stars of the 80s classic,Camp Bloodbath. Three years after Amanda is killed in a car accident, Max reluctantly agrees to make an appearance at aCamp Bloodbathscreening. When the theater is suddenly set ablaze mid-movie, Max and her friends race to the only way out — through the movie screen. Little do they know, by choosing that route, they’ve stepped right into the movie.
