'Final Girls' way more clever than one might expect

In the surprisingly clever 1980s mad slasher parody "The Final Girls," five unsuspecting filmgoers become magically transported into the 1986 cult maniac movie "Camp Blood Bath" where they must rely on their instincts and knowledge of plot and characters to stay alive.

Call it "Unpleasantville."

Director Todd Strauss-Schulson's lovingly comic homage to splatter films includes a nifty emo twist: The mom of main teenager Max (Taissa Farmiga) was the film's original star, Amanda (Malin Akerman), killed in a crash at the start of this movie.

Now, Max is able to see her (much younger) mother again, but only as one of the stock characters being chased by the masked, machete-wielding Billy (Dan Norris), out for revenge against the bullies who deformed him.

What's not to love about this?

The crisp screenplay by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller has great fun playing with the genre conventions. It also includes sly lines such as "Where's the beef?" and "I can't believe that we're going to watch people casually be murdered! What is this, Detroit?"

Strauss-Schulson, who directed the wacky "A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas," keeps the action lively without delving into stupidity or utter blood bath campiness.

The movie title refers to the genre's ironclad rule that the final girl alive (always a virgin) will be the one to vanquish the killer with his own weapon. Could Max (Farmiga, projecting way more personality and sympathy than required) be the final girl? Or will it be Mom?

"This will be fun, huh?" says Max's friend Gertie (Alia Shawkat).

Oh, yes. It will.