The Final Girls lacks the ability to make a horror satire pulse

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Likely the sweetest film ever to play the Toronto International Film Festival's hard-core Midnight Madness program, The Final Girls is all smiles and winks, but lacks the blood to make its horror satire pulse.

After a group of teens find themselves transported into a 1980s slasher flick (don't ask), they must subvert tropes and elbow the audience in the ribs until they can return home. Scream, Feast and a handful of other, smarter genre riffs have already tackled this high-concept conceit to death, though the gorgeously shot, purple-hued climax is pretty to look at.