Director: Tyler Shields
Writers: Johnny Silver (story by), Stephen Scarlata (story by)
Stars: Abigail Breslin, Wes Bentley, Logan Huffman
Plot: A man teaches a young woman how to become a complete weapon. Later she is approached by a group of sadistic teens who kill blonde women for unknown reasons. The hunting season begins.
Why I Watched it: The cast, the fact it was a horror film, I know it’s my go to answer.
Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics 27% Audience 24%
Random Thoughts: First off don’t confuse this with Final Girls, that one is also a horror meta movie. This film is tricky cause it’s a low budget film, and reading the description I wasn’t sure what it was trying to be and after I saw it I have the same question.
What I liked: This is a weird, strange, almost a dream logic kind of film, the vibe is strange and to be honest I never got a handle on the film. The look is dreary and very foreboding, it does have a nice atmosphere to it. I liked Abigail Breslin she’s turning into a pretty good genre actress. She can play strong but also Innocent. Wes Bently is weird in this, if an actor can have a strange tone than he has it here. I have no idea about his character so either Bentley did a good job or he had no idea either. My take of this film is that Breslin is being trained to be a Final Girl, not in the movies but real life, I know it’s weird and I will say this they never explain they go about their business like either we already know or we don’t need to but they aren’t stopping to spell it out. The action is decent the hunted becoming the hunter and turning the tables in always cool and it works pretty well here.
What I didn’t Like: The tone is all over the place, I kind of blame the director here cause we have some performances that are played for camp and way over the top others are very quiet and creepy and they don’t mesh at all. This film would work if it was a meta film, if it was about creating a Final Girl to deal with all the slashers in film, it would make sense but I get the sense they aren’t really trying to do that. This seems like an experimental film, honestly it plays like a college student’s film, lot’s of ideas and questions no answers. The movie is very messy as a story the Bentley+Breslin relationship is a bit weird and creepy. The big question for me is the main goal of this film, is this a dream world, is this heighten reality, I think it’s a little bit of everything and it left me cold, I do think the budget hurt it, at times this feels cheap and really at times this feels like a play on stage. I never connected to the film or the characters.
Final Thoughts: I stop at calling it an interesting film but it’s a curiosity for sure and if it was a little bit better made I could see it being a cult film, it’s strange enough to get a bit of a following for sure, it’s not unwatchable but it’s not satisfying either.
Rating: 4/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 