History Film / TragedyGirls

Best friends Sadie (Hildebrand) and [=McKayla=] (Shipp) do everything together, including running their true crime website, "Tragedy Girls." In order to gain the recognition they so desperately crave, they decide to do what anyone would do: murder people themselves and then report on it. Meanwhile, they've managed to capture a local SerialKiller, Lowell Orson Lehmann, and are currently keeping him locked up in a warehouse, in the hopes of using him as a scapegoat. As the Tragedy Girls become an overnight sensation, Sadie and [=McKayla=] fight to keep one step ahead of the local law enforcement, and keep their friendship intact.

* Downer ending: The protagonists win and even get famous for their heinous actions while everyone else is dead.

* Downerending: The protagonists win and even get famous for their heinous actions while everyone else is dead.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Nicky Whelan mostly puts on an impeccable American accent playing Mrs. Kent. Saying certain words though causes her native Australian accent to bleed through.

Best friends Sadie (Hildebrand) and [=McKayla=] (Shipp) do everything together, including running their true crime website, "Tragedy Girls." In order to gain the recognition they so desperately crave, they decide to do what anyone would do: murder people themselves, and then report on it. Meanwhile, they've managed to capture a local SerialKiller, Lowell Orson Lehmann, and are currently keeping him locked up in a warehouse, in the hopes of using him as a scapegoat. As the Tragedy Girls become an overnight sensation, Sadie and [=McKayla=] fight to keep one step ahead of the local law enforcement, and keep their friendship intact.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the first minutes of the movie, Sadie and [=McKayla=] capture a serial killer... by setting up their classmate up as bait. Rather than expressing horror that their classmate was just murdered, the girls {{Squee}} over their victory. They then work together to knock the killer out, complaining about the poor quality tasers they bought, before finally whacking him over the head with a baseball bat. Audience, meet the Tragedy Girls!

* EvilMentor: The girls initially want Lowell to be this for them, teaching them how to be effective murderers, but he doesn't go for it. So they settle for learning as they go, and using him as a scapegoat.

* FreudianExcuse: ''Utterly'' averted. The film goes out of its way to show that Sadie and [=McKayla=] had very normal, very stable upbringings, with parents that love them. They weren't bullied in school or scarred for life by some traumatic event. Nothing made them bad; they just [[ForTheEvulz are]].

** Sheriff Welch is determined to find out who the killer is, and wants to keep his son safe.

* LovableAlphaBitch: Syl is a popular cheerleader that has her moments of bitchiness, but she's not really a bad person. She does charity work and is generally pretty nice -- most of her nastier moments can be attributed to her being a stressed teenager that's lashing out.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The only thing we know for sure is that Rosedale is somewhere in the Midwest, but Jordan's suggestions for where Sadie could go to college (Kent State and Ohio State University) suggest it's in Ohio. It was filmed in Kentucky, which borders Ohio, and they're both part of a Tristate area that often counts the other states for "in state" tuition.

* SaltAndPepper: The titular girls: Sadie is white, [=McKayla=]'s black. Sadie's the more level-headed, and [=McKayla=]'s slightly hot-headed. Overall, they're pretty alike though.

** [[spoiler:Big Al's head gets taken off by a set of weights falling on his neck.]]

* BigGuyRodeo: During the fight in the gym, [=McKayla=] jumps on to Big Al's back in a desperate attempt to pull him away from Sadie.

* BoyishShortHair: Sadie sports a pixie cut she dyed platinum blonde throughout the film. Initially it's just to lure Lowell, who targets young women with short hair, but Sadie likes how it looks so she keeps this. It fits pretty well with her slightly masculine clothing style.

* FakeOutOpening: The movie starts as many slasher films do -- with the pretty blonde making out with a guy in a car in a secluded area, before he promptly gets butchered by a mysterious killer. The pretty blonde runs away and the killer gives chase... and he's promptly captured by the pretty blonde and her friend, who set the whole thing up as a trap for him.

** When Sadie and [=McKayla=] are getting ready to [[spoiler:kill Toby]] they check themselves out in the mirror. [=McKayla=] jokes that they'll need to start wearing masks, because if they keep dressing so well people will know it's them. Later, while wearing masks and stalking [[spoiler:Syl]], [=McKayla=] is recognised by her distinctive shoes.

* FreudianExcuse: ''Utterly'' averted. The film goes out of its way to show that Sadie and [=McKayla=] had very normal, very stable upbringings, with parents that love them. They weren't bullied in school, or scarred for life by some traumatic event. Nothing made them bad; they just [[ForTheEvulz are]].

** Big Al, the fire marshal, is determined to protect the community, and rallies people to try and hunt the killer down.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: [[spoiler:Jordan begins to suspect there's something off about [=McKayla=] when she taunts him over the fact that his mother's murder was never solved, since the death was ''never officially ruled as a murder''. However, he suspects that [=McKayla=] simply ''knows'' the murderer, since she was only a kid when it happened. He didn't realize she actually did it... or that Sadie helped.]]

** [=McKayla=] hates Jordan, and goes out of her way to be needlessly rude -- even though, as Sadie points out, he's the sheriff's son and edits their videos for them, so antagonizing him isn't really a good idea.

* LackOfEmpathy: The titular Tragedy Girls. Both have none aside from for each other, along with their parents, and will stop at nothing to get what they want. To them, murder is a mere stepping stone to fame.

* SpoilerCover: Several of the posters and the cover to the DVD clearly show [[spoiler:the massacre on prom night]].
* TeensAreMonsters: ''Yes''. Sadie Cunningham and [=McKayla=] Hooper are quite possibly two of the most evil teenagers to ever exist onscreen.

* NiceShoes: [=McKayla=] wears hot pink high-tops with matching laces, [[spoiler:which is what tips Syl off that [=McKayla=] is one of her killers.]]

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Way, ''way'' over on the cynical side.

* BoyishShortHair: Sadie sports a pixie cut she dyed platinum blonde throughout the film.

* TheCheerleader: Sadie, [=McKayla=], and Syl are all on the cheer squad, and all seem to be quite popular. None of them are dumb, however, and Sadie and [=McKayla=] manage to keep (most of) their bitchiness [[BitchInSheepsClothing under wraps]].

* FreudianExcuse: ''Utterly'' averted. The film goes out of its way to show that Sadie and [=McKayla=] had very normal, very stable upbringings, with parents that love them. They weren't bullied in school, or scarred for life by some traumatic event. Nothing made them bad; they just ''are''.

* KnifeNut: Both girls prefer to wield knives against their victims.

** The way the Mayor is impaled on the flagpole is staged exactly like the unfortunate native from ''film/CannibalHolocaust''.

* AdultFear:
** Your child could be going to school with a couple of psychopaths who are on a killing spree, and they're blending in perfectly.
** Alternatively, your child could ''be'' one of those psychopaths, in spite of the fact that you raised them with love and affection.

* NightmareFetishist: Both girls show an unhealthy interest in death, what with being {{Serial Killer}}s and all. In one scene, Sadie blows off an AlmostKiss with Jordan to peer at some pictures of violent crime scenes, noting how "amazing" the blood splatter is. In another, [=McKayla=] makes out with Toby while he bleeds to death. Their friendship has [[PseudoRomanticFriendshipcertain]] [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence undertones]] to it as well.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Sadie and [=McKayla=] are lifelong best friends and partners in crime. Though the "heterosexual" part is [[AmbiguouslyBi really]] [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship debatable]].

* NightmareFetishist: Both girls show an unhealthy interest in death, what with being {{Serial Killer}}s and all. In one scene, Sadie blows off an AlmostKiss with Jordan to peer at some pictures of violent crime scenes, noting how "amazing" the blood splatter is. In another, [=McKayla=] makes out with Toby while he bleeds to death. Their friendship has [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship certain]] [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence undertones]] to it as well.

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Guess who? The girls are impossibly close friends, and share everything with one another. They're also very physically affectionate, frequently holding hands or leaning against one another.

[[caption-width-right:300:''A sweet story of a believable high school friendship between two girls who just happen to be sociopaths.'']]

[[caption-width-right:300:"A sweet story of a believable high school friendship between two girls who just happen to be sociopaths."]]

* FamousLastWords:
** "Ambulance..." - Craig
** "If I'm gonna be murdered, I'm so happy it's you." - Toby
** "...[=McKayla=]?" - [[spoiler:Syl]]
** "You bitches crazy!" - [[spoiler:Big Al]]
** "...''Why''...?" - [[spoiler:Mrs. Kent]]
** "You spend your life putting fake bullshit on the Internet! I'm gonna show you what it really looks like!" - [[spoiler:Lowell]]
** "I love you... the ''real'' you. Come on. You're nothing like her." - [[spoiler:Jordan]]

** Toby survives a ''brutal'' motorcycle crash that leaves his leg broken so badly it bends practically 90 degrees, gets stabbed five times, is also suffocated, and still spits out some FamousLastWords.