Final Girl (2015) Review

After his wife and child are murdered, William (Wes Bentley, Hunger Games, American Horror Story) decides to devote his life to training seemingly innocent blonde girls to become brutal killing machines. To him, it’s a crucial part of his plan for vengeance. For his prodigee Veronica (Abigail Breslin (Zombieland, Scream Queens), it’s a gruelling process, driven on by her will to succeed and to a small part, her feelings for her teacher.

After learning the vital skills which will give her the best chance of bettering her opponents – leaving them dead and her victorious – Veronica is encouraged out into the field and it isn’t long until she finds a group of sinister young men in dinner jackets who are ripe for the culling.

The gang of lads regularly targets lone women and lures them into a local forest where they toy with them before torturing and killing them. They are seemingly untouched by the law and are full of confidence, but that’s because they haven’t yet had to deal with someone as well equipped as Veronica.

As they drive her out to their usual hunting spot, Veronica seems vulnerable in her evening dress.
Things escalate when they group plays truth or dare. Predictably, the game goes in favour of the guys and Veronica’s last turn results in her having to run for her life. As she regains focus she does her best to justify the title of the film and defeat them all.

Final Girl is an unusual film. It starts off fast and doesn’t mess around with much detail. The audience doesn’t get much time to understand the main characters before they are plunged into the intensive training regimes in often stunning surroundings.

Even the back story behind William’s hunger for revenge is only touched upon and as for the group of murderous boys, not much is revealed about who they are and why they are addicted to killing.
That can be seen as good or bad. Skipping the back-stories is what keeps Final Girl short and to-the-point (just 1hr 27mins) and means that the action come quickly and regularly.

On the other hand, it also makes it slightly more difficult to connect with the characters – that said, perhaps there isn’t too much to be said about the group of men. Maybe the thing that makes them most terrifying is the fact that they act without much motive – like the boys in Funny Games (1997).

Final Girl is well produced, has a good cast and oozes quality in terms of how it all looks and sounds.
And although the plot seems to lose direction from time to time, it doesn’t prevent the film from being thrilling fun that doesn’t require too much concentration or context.

Movie Rating:

Trailer: