The premise for The Final Girls – a group of teens are inexplicably sucked into a slasher movie and must survive its 92 minute runtime in hopes of returning to their world – is questionable to say the least. One might think to find such a movie buried deep down in and amongst the filth of Netflix; hidden amongst those low-budget wanna-be’s masquerading as the real deal. It doesn’t take the aid of Sherlock to prove that this is not the case. Not only is The Final Girls not atrocious, it’s rather excellent. As in, it’s goddamn righteous.

The Final Girls tells the story of final girl in the making, Max (Taissa Farmiga). For those not familiar with the genre-specific lingo, a “final girl” is a classic horror trope: the last-girl-standing who is to ultimately kill off the flick’s big bad wolf. They usually don’t fit the description of “survivor” – much less “badass” – at first but circumstances lead to blood-soaked metamorphoses and our precocious angels are transformed into fast-thinking antagonist-killing machines. Think back to Halloween’s Laurie Storde, Suspiria’s Suzy Bannion, Scream’s Sidney Prescott or more recently to Sharni Vinson’s Erin of You’re Next or Dana Polk from The Cabin in the Woods (more on this comparison later.) Even Alien’s Ripley is one of the OG final girls.

In addition to being our expectant final girl, Max is daughter to a popular 80s scream queen (a delightful Malin Akerman) who met an unfortunate end in a car crash years earlier. Still not recovered from the incident, Max’s life is all but on hold. Out to lunch with BFF Gertie (Arrest Development’s Alia Shawkat), Max is approached by the noxious (and rather funny) Duncan, played perfectly by Silicon’s Valley’s Thomas Middleditch, with hopes of recruiting her to appear as a special guest to a midnight screening of her mom’s iconic slasher, “Camp Bloodbath”.

During the screening, the ash of a roach combines with the some spilled swill to create a mighty conflagration. Along with crush Chris (Alexander Ludwig) and classic mean girl Vicki (Nina Dobrev in a star-making turn), Max and Co. slash their the screen to escape only to find themselves in the very picture they had just been watching. As our crew of to-be-victims fast discover that they aren’t as impervious to danger as they first suspected, all bets are off.

Once this uber-meta dimension has been opened, the jocular horror-comedy finds fast footing and accelerates towards becoming a true cult classic in the making. It doesn’t hurt that Adam DeVine is willing to make a real mockery of himself playing a cherry-hunting camp counselor. Likewise, Angela Trimbur is a committed riot as the cliche “slut” – especially once she gets her mitts on some Adderall.

But it’s hard to pick out just one or two cast members who make The Final Girls work as its success rests delicately upon each character providing just the right elements of cheese and sass – and they each do so aptly. Sure, there isn’t necessarily enough rhyme or reason to the logic of entering the film but the characters are so recklessly enjoyable that the criticism won’t really stack up.

Director Todd Strauss-Schulson cleverly employs other film mainstays like slow motion, flashbacks and sentient title cards to original, distinct effect. There’s self-awareness here that most horror-comedy make a mockery of. Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon were able to achieve something similar with Cabin in the Woods, as was Eli Craig with Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil. A million movies have tried to deconstruct the genre; few have been truly successful. Even Wes Craven’s attempt to go meta landed yolk-down. With The Final Girls, Strauss-Schulson satirizes coyly, flambéing it all in an ironic sear of awesome. He hast presented a horror-comedy that is truly sunny-side up.

CONCLUSION: ‘The Final Girls’ does for teen horror slashers what Cabin in the Woods did for the monster genre; it’s an uproariously meta romp that’s easily one of the best PG-13 horror movies of the decade.”