Tragedy Girls

There is a useful directness to Tragedy Girls, a horror film shaped by Tyler MacIntyre with a firm understanding of its audience. In Tragedy Girls, Brianna Hildebrand provides the anchor while Alexandra Shipp introduces a contrasting energy. Without revealing later complications, Tragedy Girls opens from this situation: A twist on the slasher genre, following two death obsessed teenage girls who use their online show about real life tragedies to send their small mid western town into a frenzy, and cement their legacy as modern horror legends. The resulting its 1h 38m running time feels most convincing whenever Tragedy Girls trusts behaviour more than explanation.

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Tragedy Girls gains much of its identity from carefully rationed sound, a choice that makes the world readable as well as attractive. The contribution of It's The Comeback Kids allows Tragedy Girls to combine carefully rationed sound with a consistent visual language. Within its United States setting, Tragedy Girls makes particularly good use of uneasy framing when the story needs to change scale. Sound and editing preserve the personality of Tragedy Girls by supporting detail instead of announcing every intended response.

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As director of Tragedy Girls, Tyler MacIntyre proves engaging in bursts but unable to maintain the same control in the transitions between intimate material and larger demands. A strong scene in Tragedy Girls often begins with a modest detail before Tyler MacIntyre lets its meaning expand. For Tragedy Girls, worthwhile ideas compete with an uneven structure because the central tone remains visible even during busy passages. The weakness in Tragedy Girls is that the pace alternates between hurry and drift, although Tyler MacIntyre usually finds the original rhythm again.

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Rather than summarise every event in Tragedy Girls, it is enough to note how the central character places an important relationship under growing pressure. Brianna Hildebrand gives that tension a face, which stops Tragedy Girls from becoming a mechanical sequence of developments. Chris Lee Hill uses a difficult choice to widen the stakes of Tragedy Girls without losing sight of the original problem. Where the wider conflict becomes predictable, Tragedy Girls recovers interest through the consequences surrounding it.

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Tragedy Girls uses its horror film framework to consider fear, isolation and the moment familiar spaces stop feeling safe. For the character played by Brianna Hildebrand, that idea gives Tragedy Girls stakes beyond the next immediate obstacle. The recurring pressure of an important relationship prevents the theme in Tragedy Girls from feeling like decoration added after the story. Tyler MacIntyre makes Tragedy Girls more thoughtful whenever the implications remain inside action and reaction.

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The acting in Tragedy Girls is anchored by Brianna Hildebrand, who treats even functional scenes as opportunities to reveal character. Alexandra Shipp answers that approach with a different energy, giving Tragedy Girls welcome friction whenever the pace begins to settle. Around them, Jack Quaid helps Tragedy Girls feel like an ensemble piece rather than a vehicle with decorative support. Under Tyler MacIntyre, the performances in Tragedy Girls share a tone even when the writing gives them unequal depth.

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Overall, Tragedy Girls amounts to a qualified recommendation and should suit horror viewers who prefer atmosphere to constant shocks. The combination of Brianna Hildebrand, Tyler MacIntyre and carefully rationed sound gives Tragedy Girls a specific identity. Although the pace alternates between hurry and drift in Tragedy Girls, the film recovers through craft and committed performance. For the audience it understands, Tragedy Girls offers enough character to remain worthwhile after the immediate plot has faded.