Watched Kristy per a rec in this thread, because it has that appealing thing where the hunted becomes a badass. The uninspired moments and missed opportunities stood out to me more than the things that work. That said, if you’re new to the “hunted turns the tables” story, this is a decent intro. (Though I’d recommend the much stronger, more interesting You’re Next.)
There’s an opening opening title sequence with a bunch of scrambled ominous internet posts narrated by a sinister woman. They talk about killing girls, calling them “Kristys”, and it just goes on a little too long. This made me wary, and it turns out I was right to be; overall this movie does a little too much telling, and not enough showing. There’s a much better reveal of this info late in the film, where it’s both creepy to learn about and widens the scope in an interesting, scary way.
Our main character doesn’t have much of a character. What’s revealed through the course of the film just sorta happens, and doesn’t arise out of any themes or elements of her character that are established early. There’s a montage as our heroine is settling in to being alone on campus where she’s dancing around and celebrating being alone intercut with lots of bits of her just wandering around, lonely. It’s all set to peppy music, but it’s not telling a consistent story. She’s neither Playful Girl or Stoic Girl nor Slowly Becoming Less Playful Girl. We’re not even sure why, particularly, she’s staying behind.
Overall the movie does a lot of moments without really committing. There’s a “hiding among the library stacks” sequence, but it’s like, gestured at, not actually done. Lots of dark skulking through bookshelves with no geometry or physical relationship, so it’s just like them saying “hey, it’s this scene.” This scene ends with a sequence that I felt was emblematic of the missed character opportunities throughout:
Justine cornered on the roof. They approach, leering, as she begs “why are you doing this” and when it’s clear she’s about to get shanked she turns and jumps off the roof. There’s a great descending shot through the branches of the denuded winter trees and then she slams to the ground underneath. And then she picks herself up and limps away down a wooded path. And…that’s that moment. There’s no reflection amongst the killers that they’ve picked a particularly gutsy and determined prey, there’s no moment where she collects herself or goes “holy shit that worked?!” It’s just another moment.
There’s lots of competent but uninspired stuff throughout, with a few standout moments like the aforementioned stupid-but-tense pool dunk, and a shared moment between a dying killer and our heroine. The whole sequence with the maintenance man feels like stuff we’ve seen a million times before. It feels like a writer and director and team going through the motions, maybe a “my first horror” thing. I didn’t feel there was anything to recommend it, but I enjoyed thinking about how it could have been better!
Spoilery notes as I watched follow.
- Not much character early on. Who is this chick? Why is she staying?
- Now 30 minutes in the thriller beats are getting layered in and they’re fine but unremarkable.
- I wish I knew more of the geometry of the dorm. She’s wandering lots of hallways but I don’t know how they connect!
- …Boy, that escalated quickly. Guards are dead, cultists are carving Ks into the wall
- She’s already sort of cool. Doing something to escape, rather than just sneaking out.
- Too many audio stingers! And too much SCORE. They oversell, and it shows a lack of confidence.
- She’s gonna get help from maintenance guy who looks like thicker, adult Milo Ventimiglia! He’s high, though, and his apartment is a mess. He commits the cardinal sin of going outside, and she commits the cardinal sin of allowing him to.
- Nooooo puppy nooooo
- Some people walk by outside my window as the movie plays and I’m very suspicious of them.
- I feel like this is pitched at a younger generation than mine. It’s full of music. Justine is running to the library now, and an alternative-sounding guitar riff plays. .
- She just jumped off a freakin’ roof and the alt-guitar is back?! Go away!
- Okay boyfriend showed up and now it’s all going to be – ha ha! no of course it won’t, but BOY did they not take their time getting rid of him. Only a tiny bit of guitar after his death, though.
- First assailant is down. Not very satisfyingly staged dude-smashed-by-car death. But watching her get pissed feels good.
- Weird sappy score after she shanks a dude in the pool.
- “Ho ho ho, now I have an aluminum bat”
- Shit, a weapon-customization mini-montage!
- Damn killers, always on their cell phones when they should be killing.
- Man, how else would we know this is scary without this score? I don’t normally think young women being hunted in the shower room is scary, especially when it’s so dark you can’t see anything, but the score helps me soooo much.
- Yeah, we don’t need the opening sequence at all. The reveal of the cult on the killer’s phone is way better without it.
- HELL YES PUT ON THAT MASK GIRL
- Well. That ended fast. She uses Chekov’s exploding powder, which we saw in a montage at the beginning for about 3 seconds.
- Hope she goes to the other cities and takes out the other cultists. …oh phooey, she went to the police and they did it.
- I wish body count were lower. In fact, I wish the killers purposefully avoided killing anyone BUT her. That would be way more interesting.
- “Justine is dead, my name is Kristy” is the final VO, but the only problem is (ha ha that’s not the only problem) we never knew who Justine was. She was never a person, she was just ‘the hunted one.’
- I don’t know why this isn’t called “Stacy”, as it’s obvious the killers hate Staceys. (what about Chads?)
(can you tell I don’t have anyone else to talk to about this stuff?! Thanks for being out there, y’all!)
