Movie Review: Final Girl (2015)

The movie stars Abigail Breslin, Wes Bentley, Logan Huffman, Cameron Bright and Francesca Eastwood.

My daughters have their annual ice show this weekend and, because of that, this has been a busy week. However, my wife and I did manage to get settled early enough to watch a movie last night and, after scrolling through a few choices, I ended up picking this one simply because it sounded a bit different. It turned out to be better I was expecting it to be. But, I don't think this movie lived up to its potential.

As far as the main plot goes, I had to give this film some points for uniqueness. The story was similar to "Last House on the Left," minus the rape, but the twist involving a woman who is trained to turn the tables on the group of teens kept it fresh enough to be entertaining. And, I have to admit, I liked how she went out of her way to make them think she was as helpless as their other victims before springing the trap.

Unfortunately, while there were things that were definitely worth watching in this film, there were also quite a few things about it that did hurt my overall opinion of it.

For one, as was the case with another movie I watched recently, this film had a sequel feel to it. In other words, as I was watching it, I felt like there was an earlier movie I was supposed to have seen first. This is particularly true of the character, William (Bentley), who seems to have some sort of backstory we are supposed to know about. Included in this is whether or not William is training Veronica (Bresnan) for his own private reasons or if he works for some sort of organization. 

I'm also assuming William is supposed to be part vampire or something. This is based mostly on the fact Veronica grows from a young child into a young woman while he doesn't age a bit.

In addition to this, in order to fully enjoy the movie, you have to ignore quite a bit of missing information. This includes why Veronica had to fight the teenagers rather than simply turning them into the police (I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact they were rich, but it was never made clear), why she had to fight them by herself (unarmed) while William apparently watched (while carrying a rifle) and on their turf. Plus, the movie never does explain why the boys were killing blondes in the first place.

This movie wasn't overly long (about 84 minutes), so it wouldn't have been difficult to add at least basic information like that. At minimum, the film wouldn't have left me with a bunch of unanswered questions, increasing my overall enjoyment.

Overall, the movie is halfway decent and worth taking the time to watch once. But, while it is good, the various unanswered questions did keep it from being great.

My Grade: B