"The Ridge Grave Girls" (2023) is a short film by Angelwood Studios. It follows Ther Estridge, Angelwood's latest Prom Queen-to-be, who must break free from her small town’s ominous legacy of Prom Queens that die after their crowning.
A dark deconstruction and queer coming-of-age satire, opposites attract in a small-town high school, where the only way to truly live is to die.
"The Ridge Grave Girls" is a reclamatory queer and feminist film that deconstructs the dead girl trope in film and media, such as Jennifer's Body (2009), The Virgin Suicides (1999), Twin Peaks (1990), Heathers
(1988), and Vertigo (1958) and questions why girls are most loved when they’re dead.
The short film also poses the question: what does “burial” mean in the face of tropes like Bury Your Gays, Trans Tribulations, and is it possible to reclaim that... or turn it on its head?
The full short film is available on Youtube.
"The Ridge Grave Girls" provides examples of:
- Bury Your Gays: Mia Meadows was forced to repent after being "caught with a girl". Of course, she dies not long after the fact...
- Deconstructed with Ethereality Estridge, or should we say Ther Estridge, who deliberately 'kills herself' before the town gets a chance to kill her... becoming their true self along the way.
- Final Girl: Laura Stanton was the quote-unquote "final girl" of the Hallows Stalker. Turns out, Laura isn't much of the final girl than she is Virgin Sacrifice...
- Faking the Dead: Near the end of the film, Ther 'buries' herself (physically and metaphysically) with Ronin's help to escape the unfortunate fate that befalls the Ridge Grave Girls. You can't kill a dead girl twice...
