Final Girl (2015)
[YOUTUBE]Ec1-3Fjxy0c[/YOUTUBE]
Plot- As a young girl, Veronica meets William (Wes Bentley) after the death of her parents. Veronica passes all of William's tests with high marks, so William invites Veronica to join a program, and Veronica accepts.
Twelve years later, William pushes Veronica (Abigail Breslin) during the final stages of her training as an assassin. After a field test, William believes Veronica is ready for her first mission after she withstands the effects of a powerful hallucinatory drug.
In a small town, Jameson (Alexander Ludwig), Daniel (Logan Huffman), Nelson (Reece Thompson), and Shane (Cameron Bright) work together to lure young girls into the woods near town. Here, the four friends hunt and kill their unsuspecting victims.
Veronica meets and befriends Shane's girlfriend, Jennifer (Emma Paetz) at the local diner to pick up some more info on the group, and Jennifer opens up to Veronica about the troubles in her relationship with Shane, and the cracks within the group.
One night, Veronica's pure, innocent look, and her blonde hair (Jameson targets blondes) catches Jameson's attention at the diner. Jameson invites Veronica on a date, and she accepts. Veronica wants to go over a gameplan with William for the mission, but he informs her she will have to eliminate the boys alone.
After a game of truth or dare in the woods with the boys, Jameson reveals the group's true intentions to hunt and murder Veronica. Jameson gives Veronica a five minute head start to escape, but unbeknownst to Jameson and his friends, they're going up against someone, who has the skills and the training to fight back.........
My Thoughts- Abigail Breslin gives a good effort as the confident and cerebral assassin for a decent performance. And Wes Bentley, playing the serious and disciplined trainer/mentor, really makes his character work.
The relationship between Veronica and William is a strange one, but it's one of the main highlights here. Veronica is clearly in love with William (she writes "I love you" on a mirror before the mission), and before her first field test, you're lead to believe William is the only man or person Veronica knows in the world. On top of that, William basically raised Veronica, so you can understand why she has feelings for him. There's a scene in a motel room, where it's heavily implied Veronica wants to have sex with William. Of course, he refuses, and you have to believe a lot of that has to do with Veronica's age, and William not wanting to cross that line with his pupil.
The antagonists are basically are bunch loony man children, with a lot of loose screws. Daniel is kind of wacky, Nelson is clearly in love with his mother, and Shane is a bit more serious more often than not, but overall, he's just another warm body. Alexander Ludwig fills the role of the leader with a solid performance. He's this smug, arrogant prick, and you get the impression he's one of those untouchable cool kids in high school, who walks around with a cocky smile on his face.
Together, Jameson, Daniel, Nelson, and Shane are bit to comical at times, but I didn't have too much trouble buying into them as a pack of bloodthirsty psychos. One example that sticks it out is, Veronica panicking at the thought of a sexual assault before the game starts. But Jameson reassures Veronica the group has no plans to rape Veronica, because a weakened Veronica will take all of the fun out of the game.
The hallucinations during Veronica's mission sparks one of the bigger conundrums for me. On one hand, the hallucinations (Veronica puts a powerful hallucinogenic in the flask before the party) during the fight scenes cover a lot of gaps in logic. I know she has the training, and I know she's supposed to be a lethal bad ass, but Abigail Breslin is a tiny, tiny woman, and you can you really see it, when she's standing next to the group (especially Jameson). It's a movie, but for me, suspending disbelief to believe someone, who might weigh a little over 100 lbs. soaking wet could manhandle a group of lunatics without any help is a little tricky.
On the flip side of that, yes, the hallucinations give Veronica the upper hand, but some of the hallucinations are kind of silly, and they undermine the tone of the film. Shane seeing Jennifer, and realizing his worst fears with Jennifer knowing the truth, and Jennifer having feelings for Jameson fits. But the hallucinations with Daniel fighting guys wearing panda heads before Veronica attacks, or Nelson mouth kissing his mother are out of place here.
Final Girl is not perfect, but I'm really looking forward to any future films from director Tyler Shields. The lighting, and Shileds' crisp and striking vision is something to admire. The nostalgic and simplistic 50's (or 60's, they never give any clear hints for the timeline) setting helps, and visually, there's no denying Final Girl is a unique experience.
Final Girl puts a spin on the final girl trope in horror films, when Veronica fights back, and "The Hunted Becomes The Hunter" is one of the taglines for this film. I'm glad they decided to go the route of one girl training to stop Jameson and his crew, and they only show the group murdering one girl (Gwen) to avoid redundancy, and all the cliches in a formulaic slasher. The "parties" take place deep in the woods. You're in the middle of nowhere, and you're sitting on dirty, broken down furniture, so you're pretty stupid, if you seriously believe you're going to a party in the middle of nowhere.
Final Girl doesn't live up to the potential of its unique premise, and truth be told, Final Girl turns into more of an action/thriller, as the story progresses. I can understand why Final Girl received so many bad reviews, but I always appreciate the effort to try something different. You can call it a swing and a miss, and there's no way around this, but the idea of spinning the final girl trope is the only real hook for this one.
