Review: 'My Super Psycho Sweet 16 Part 3'

My Super Psycho Sweet 16 Part 3
"...one helluva fun ride..."

The film opens with a flashy title card and a semi-homage to the opening credits of Showtime's Dexter.  From there it kind of takes on the cliche mystery who-dun-it made famous by so many teen slashers.  But then the film sort of flips your expectations on its side by revealing an antagonist midway through.

The filmmakers actually do quite a decent job of creating an atmosphere that is both real, and to an extent, relative to the story.  The third entry in the franchise does a nice job of giving a full backstory of the previous two, so one could go into this one without having seen the first two.  But where's the fun in that?

To say this film is just an average direct-to-video slasher would be a massive understatement.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say the film is above average in its genre.  And considering that it's an MTV production based on one of their more popular shows, I'd go even further and say it excels at what it's trying to do.

Now I'm not considering this to be a true trilogy because we didn't really learn anything new about the original. Instead, I'm just calling this Part 3 of what could be Parts 4, 5, 6, etc.  Yeah, I know -- it's being billed as "the final chapter" and all that jazz, but then again -- how many Friday the 13th flicks were "the final Friday"?  Exactly.

I do feel that this is a movie that today's MTV generation will enjoy, with all its subtle references to Jersey Shore, My Super Sweet 16, and many others -- the ratings for My Super Psycho Sweet 16 Part 3 should be pretty high.

As far as character development and establishing who's who of the ensemble, most of, if not all of, the actors do a pretty good job making their characters believable.  Kirsten Prout and Lauren McKnight fall right back into their roles with ease as Alex (Prout) and Skye (McKnight).

As with all slashers, some of the characters are simply here to be killed and to keep the body count high -- and if there's room, maybe an inventive or creative death here or there.

Right at the start of the third act, a second antagonist is revealed.  Now if you've been paying attention to the movie then the revelation will come as no surprise because with the subtle use of foreshadowing by director Jacob Gentry and writers Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, the writing is clearly on the wall.

All in all, My Super Psycho Sweet 16 Part 3 is one helluva fun ride that keeps you guessing until the bloody end -- an exceptional finish to what has been a very clever franchise.