Friday, October 24, 2025

31 Days of Halloween: Kristy

2013, Olly Blackburn (Donkey Punch) -- Amazon

We continue the trend of clicking past all the movies we have in our Lists on streaming services, as well as the getting-longer list of horror movies I have already downloaded (previous years worth of them) for something new & shiny that caught our eye. We have always liked a final-girl who turns the tables on her attacker.

Justine (Haley Bennett, The Magnificent Seven) is staying for the long weekend at her university -- she cannot afford the flight. Originally she is staying with her roommate, whose family is abroad, but plans change at the last minute and suddenly Justine is alone. That is weird. In an entire campus, she is the only one who stays? Anywayz, I am skipping past the over-share preamble & opening credits which sets up a Dark Web based network of thrill killers, led by a mysterious woman (Ashley Green, Twilight) who has something against pretty girls and Christians. She organizes "hunts", i.e. those collections of masked & hoodie wearing thrill killers who terrorize and kill isolated young women.  And then she bumps into Justine at an all night convenience store near the campus, and the unfortunate young woman is marked as a "Kristy".

This is another movie with distinct style, sometimes a bit too heavy handed with it. It is so very much a product of the 2000-teens, with the non-stop period appropriate music (music that sounds so distinctly 2000-teens) and the nausea inducing panic-stricken shaky-camera runs. But its effective. Kristy... sorry, Justine, plays the role of the final-girl when there are actually no other girls, just a handful of campus staff who are quickly killed off more or less as innocent bystanders.

But Justine is capable. Despite her fear, she eludes her hunters with ingenuity on multiple occasions, getting tired of running, and even turning on them eventually. There are only four, so it doesn't take long, once she is underway, but the movie enjoys having us run along with Justine, rooting for her, cheering her on. And in the end, via voice over, we understand Justine is helping authorities find all the "cells" of this thrill kill cult, and end them. A post-credit scene, which was entirely wasted, implies they are still active, likely to setup a sequel that never happened.

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