The Final Girl Support Group In Development At HBO Max
As the credits roll and she stands alone in her bloodied dress watching the sun rise over the campsite lake, the final girl sure seems tough. But imagine being the sole survivor of a massive, violent attack by a murderous maniac over the course of one evening. That’s the kind of thing that’d mess you up for life, right? Grady Hendrix’s horror novel The Final Girl Support Group explores what must happen after the movie is over, when final girls from various horror stories have to meet up together weekly to deal with their PTSD.
But it won’t be just a novel for long…HBO Max has expressed interest in turning the book into a TV series. Charlize Theron (yes, that one) is developing the story for television alongside Barbara and Andy Muschietti, the latter of whom directed the recent IT movies.
When you consider this novel was just released last week, that was awfully quick. But Hollywood seems to LUUURRVE Hendrix’s novels with a fangirly passion; another book of his, Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, was involved in a TEN-buyer bidding war (Amazon won that one). Three of his other books are in various stages of adaption production at other studios.
Whenever I see yet another deconstruction of 80s slasher movie tropes, I have to wonder how poor Tim Seeley feels. His comic Hack/Slash was on the ground floor of that trend and was “SLATED TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ROGUE PICTURES!!” for many years, as anyone who’s seen an issue of that book knows. But the movie never happened, the project has bounced around in limbo ever since, and now making fun of slasher movie cliches has become a cliche unto itself. Both “The Final Girl” and “The Final Girls” are existing titles of movies. Seeley was one of the first, but if his comic ever sees adaption, it’ll be at a point when the concept has become way overcooked by everyone else. How lame.
The Final Girl Support Group is in development now and has no release window.