Final Girl was directed by Tyler Shields, written by Adam Prince, Stephen Scarlata, Alejandro Seri, and Johnny Silver and starring Abigail Breslin (Zombieland and Signs) and Wes Bentley(American Beauty). Now that I got that out of the way, Final Girl was horrible. There I said in the first couple of sentences to help you get this out of the way. Let me expand on this.
I saw Final Girl pop up in my Netflix queue and thought, ‘Wow, Wes Bentley. He’s damn nice. I love horror and the synopsis promises violence.” So I checked it out. The gist of this film is that there is a group of boys (definitely not men) that go out to the woods and kills blonde girls as part of a ritualistic game. For some reason Wes Bentley’s character teaches Abigail’s character, Veronica to defend herself and to actually turn the tables on the boys. Not to have given that away, but it’s actually part of the synopsis.
The film is extremely slow, there is no background to it and the character’s are all ridiculously flat. At the beginning of the film we are watching William (Wes) go through the process of training Veronica, but not once explaining as to why he is doing this. He appears to develop feelings for Veronica, but never displays them fully. Veronica, has not depth to her what-so-ever. There is no reason that she is with William or why, she just takes the pain of being trained and continues as if this is life and no way should she question it.
The development of her ability to defend herself is a very awkward part of the film that seems to have flashbacks or flash-forwards, I couldn’t tell it was just weird. The boys have names but who cares at this point. They frequent one diner and they always chose a blond, so this guy William has them figured out and even sets them up for failure, meanwhile no cops, no detectives, or even newspaper/reporters talking about this in the entirety of this film. Apparently based on the ending of the film, these boys have killed a couple dozen girls. The incompetence of the town is completely bewildering. The diner staff says nothing as these boys always dressed in tuxedos take the girls that are dying away specifically the night after their first meeting.
Now let me tell you about the mysterious forest that these boys have taken her to. The details are that they are in the woods and no one can hear or see them. Yet ever frakking scene has a mysterious lamp post or well actually it has to be a spot light, it’s entirely too bright for anything else. Not even the moon does that. Don’t get me wrong the visual effect was really neat. It gave halos and a very mystique view of this forest with the stark difference of light and shadow, but it made absolutely no sense.
Abigail’s acting was just plain. I know that she was playing a strange sociopathic, trained killer but as an undercover girl she hardly acted like the blond, girly girl that the boys were so into. She would ask questions without emotions and made Kristen Stewart look like an over-emotional crybaby. She was supposed to make the boys interested in her and make them believe that she was fun. I feel like if it wasn’t specifically scripted that way, the boys would have left her alone due to her suspicious ways.
I think there was something that could have been a good film in this. It was missed sorely though and it was a waste for these actors to attempt. I feel like maybe they need to go back to their roots and try something more along the styles of the emotional roller coasters of indie comedy. I don’t recommend this film, it’s not even really that creative in how she kills them or even how they kill the girls. It was boring and really a waste of time.
Whatever rating system that we develop here at Gore Girls, I give this an F or a one star/skull/knife/slate/eyeball/zombie-hand/etc.
Gore Girls' 