Plot
Max Cartwright waits while her actress mother, Amanda, auditions for a film. When she returns, Amanda complains that she'll only be known as scream queen Nancy in the 1986 slasher film Camp Bloodbath, a cult classic. On the way home, the two get into a car accident and Amanda is killed but Max survives.
Three years later, on the anniversary of her mother's death, Max is studying with her friends Gertie and Chris. Gertie's stepbrother Duncan, a horror film fanatic, shows up and persuades Max to attend a special double-feature showing of Camp Bloodbath 1 and 2. At the screening, Max finds Vicki, Chris' possessive ex-girlfriend and her former best friend, there as well. During the film, the theater is accidentally set ablaze. To get to safety, Max cuts a hole in the screen and the group step through.
Max, Chris, Gertie, Duncan, and Vicki wake up in the woods. They encounter a van with characters from Camp Bloodbath, asking for directions to the camp. The van leaves only to come back every 92 minutes, and the group realize they are in a time loop and have somehow been transported into the movie. When the van returns once more, the group pass themselves off as new camp counselors and hitch a ride to camp. They let the first couple of murders happen without interference. The movies' antagonist, machete-wielding killer Billy Murphy, spots them but only stares without attacking. Duncan attempts to take a selfie with Billy, only to be stabbed, dispelling the belief that they will be spared for not being movie characters.
The group tries to stop the cast from having sex, as Billy shows up whenever someone does. Chris distracts Kurt, while Max persuades Nancy to stay a virgin. Vicki sticks with Paula, the movie's Final Girl, and Gertie bonds with Blake. When Gertie brings up the topic of Billy, the counselors are alerted to the fact that the "urban legend" of Billy is "real" and will come to kill them. In a panic, the counselors try to flee. Kurt and Paula drive off, but when Duncan emerges still alive, the car hits him and then crashes into a totem pole, killing all three.
Now aware that the characters who originally survived the movie can die, Max and the others decide to save anyone they can. They dress Tina in a life jacket and mittens, to prevent her from undressing. They also decide that Max, the only remaining virgin, is the new Final Girl, and plot to get Billy's machete into her hands so she can kill him and end the film. Meanwhile, Max and Nancy bond, and theorize that maybe if Nancy survives, she can go back home with Max and be whoever she wants.
The group booby trap the cabin, then Tina lures Billy to them by performing a striptease. Tina panics as Billy gets closer and is killed when a trip wire accidentally sends her headfirst into a bear trap. Blake, Vicki and Gertie are also killed fighting off Billy. Chris, Nancy, and Max flee the cabin, and Billy chases after them. They attempt to escape into a flashback, but Chris is stabbed, and Billy kidnaps Nancy. Max finds her at Billy's barn hideout, and the two women fight him, which results in Max getting stabbed, before they both escape.
After the two retreat to the chapel, Max tells Nancy that in the real world she is Max's mother. Nancy realizes that in order for Max to become the true Final Girl, she must sacrifice herself, and the two bid each other a tearful farewell before Nancy lures Billy with a striptease and is killed. Max collapses, but, now the Final Girl, awakens with the power to kill Billy. They fight and she eventually decapitates him with his own machete. A wounded Chris arrives and the two kiss, while the credits for Camp Bloodbath play in the sky.
Max wakes up to find herself in the hospital, where she is reunited with her friends. The group hears Billy Murphy's approach tune, and realize they are in Camp Bloodbath 2: Cruel Summer. Billy crashes through the glass doors of the hospital as the title appears, and Max lunges at him.
