Final Girl (2015)

Sadly Over-hyped

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is a revenge/slasher film with a difference. It is a very strange series of events presented in a deceptively straightforward way. Why do a group of well-groomed young men lure young blonde girls into a forest and murder them? It is implied they killed the parents of Veronica (Abigail Breslin, who was 16 when this was made). It is also implied they killed the wife and daughter of William (Wes Bentley), who becomes a surrogate parent to Veronica. How did they get away with these, and other, murders when their activities are so blatant and notorious and they make no effort to disguise themselves? Also, these high-class killers would surely have been nothing more than children when they killed Veronica's parents.Why does William take the trouble to manipulate Veronica by training her to be an efficient killer in order to despatch these lads when he could just as well do the deed himself, or simply inform the police? Equally, the pack find nothing suspicious in meeting a young lady so naïve as to agree to a date with four young men she doesn't know. As the audience, we are either not expected to wonder about such things, or the writers consider such questions unimportant.The moody atmospherics of the piece distracts from the lack of details and gives a faintly surreal quality to events. The gang take time to get to know Veronica whilst sitting on rackety chairs and sofas in impressively backlit woods.There are vagaries and elements that could have been explained more, and the pacing could have been more involving. But I don't see these things as lapses or plot-holes, rather-more deliberate artistic decisions that stop the film from ever getting all 'cosy' or familiar in its telling. A choice has also been made to ensure this is gore-free, despite the expectations a film with this premise attracts. It is almost as if the production distances itself from the story being told. The results are pleasingly odd.

I was bored this day and searching Netflix for something different when I came across this little gem of a movie. To me its IMDb rating is misleading, it actually accomplishes its purpose very well. It is a guilty pleasure where the pretty girl gets the advantage over the naughty boys.Watching the movie suggested themes from "Hanna" where a young girl is raised in the wilderness by an older man to be an assassin. The girl here is Abigail Breslin as Veronica and she is trained from a very young age, after passing a difficult intelligence test, by Wes Bentley as William.The core story is about a group of four friends who have a fixation on pretty, young blond girls. One of them befriends them, they take her out to a secluded place in the woods at night, and she ends up dead. William lost his daughter to them and he wants Veronica to be able to effect his revenge. This is plain and simple a revenge movie, you can't say the guys didn't have it coming to them. It is rather well made and I especially liked the lighting effects in the woods at night.

SPOILERS This film left me with a lot of questions and I've come to realize that the answer to every single one of them is "because it is a dumb and senseless movie." Here are a few for you to sample: How did these murderers who are in high school kill William's wife and daughter over ten years ago? Did they kill them when they were 6 years old? Why doesn't William just kill them himself or turn them into the police? Why are they waiting ten years to train this little girl while other women are being murdered when they already know who the killers are and could stop them? Why does Veronica have a crush on William? He adopted her when she was a little girl and is basically her father. Isn't this messed up? Why does William tickle her? That was so weird! Why do they choke out that random guy at the bar? Why can't she just shoot them? If a gun without bullets is a paperweight why can't she just take more bullets? Why isn't she allowed to wear shoes? If she's going to drug them why can't she just poison them? What woman in their right mind would wear formal attire and drive into the woods with four men they just met? Why does it take her so long to kill these bozos when she's been training for ten years and they are drugged? Why is this guy so scared of pandas? I thought she wasn't allowed to use a gun so why does William shoot the last guy? Why didn't he shoot them ten years ago? If he was there the whole time with a gun why was he letting her try and fist fight them to death when he could have easily killed them? Who made this movie? Who reviewed the script and thought "this is good"? How was this disaster ever made?

It's a good thing I don't go by ratings or I never would have seen this movie. I love the plot, the writing, the characters and the character development. It was a great movie. I've watched it a dozen times and I like it better each time. I have recommended this movie to friends of mine without telling them what the rating were but of course, telling them the plot and my friends loved it! In fact this movie's low rating score on here is what motivated me to join IMDb. I am an AVID movie watcher and see so many horrible movies and this movie was GREAT! Definitely worth your time.