Tragedy Girls (2017; Tyler MacIntire)

GRADE: C

By Daniel Barnes

*Opens Friday, November 3.

Appealing newcomers Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp headline this ghoulish and unfunny horror satire.  They play high school cheerleaders and lifelong “besties” with an unhealthily active interest in serial killers.

In an attempt to expand their skills and increase their followers, murderous social media addicts Sadie and McKayla kidnap a seasoned serial killer (Kevin Durand), wreaking homicidal havoc in his name when he refuses to help and using the resulting infamy to promote their online brand.  As bodies pile up in increasingly cartoonish fashion, Sadie and McKayla’s natural-born-killers bond gets tested by cute boys and the vicissitudes of teenage popularity.

Director MacIntire and co-writer Chris Lee Hill pile on the bratty amorality, but only in the service of a cheap, bad-looking, one-joke movie.  Millennials and their social media amirite nyuk nyuk nyuk, and so forth.  Ultimately, Tragedy Girls is filled with enough tired and uninsightful self-referential jokes to fill Scream 5 through 7.  Only the sheer adorable-ness of Hildebrand and Shipp makes Tragedy Girls the least bit bearable.

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