Kristy (2014)

Better Late Then Never

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Blistering performances.

When ever I'm bored and need a good horror movie to watch, this is the one.

This movie wanted to be edge of your seat, and nerve wracking. I just wasn't feeling it. Through the whole thing you can't help but know that it's all been done before. You've seen it a million times. Within the first few scene's you will be able to predict the entire movie. It doesn't necessarily make it bad, as the movie is for sure watchable, it just takes away some of the appeal for me. Acting was good, and believable. The atmosphere was just blah. A little patchy fog here and there and a night sky just isn't enough to make it creepy, or scary. They very obviously tried to incorporate the soundtrack more than most modern movies do, which I could appreciate, but I also thought they took that in the wrong direction. Never at any point was I rooting for the main actress. I simply didn't care about her. Watch if you're bored. Or don't. You wont be missing anything.

Kristy starts out like any other slasher flick; a timid girl finds herself alone in a secluded area, only to be hunted by a masked stranger or group of strangers who fill the urge to slaughter with pseudo religious or radically moral motifs that ultimately cast no bearing on the events that unfold. Halloween drove home the idea of Michael seeking out Laurie due to their bloodline only after a barrage of sequels, and Jason became an embodiment of his mother's revenge only after Steve Miner took up the reigns. Watching Kristy feels like tuning into a sequel well into its second act, where blood splatters and teens run for reasons unknown to us. There's something amiss in the terror that reverberates from the lungs of our scream queen, and with Kristy it's in the form of a strewn together intro that collects fuzzy and distorted found footage kills from our group of outcasts that feel pieced together from a previous movie. It causes us to feel disconnected from the onslaught of dread that oozes from the chase, and perhaps it works as our timid girl Justine (Haley Benett) never once fills the dead of night with her panic. It's a lacking horror trope that feels refreshing and separates Kristy from the rest, similar to what Adam Wingard brought to the screen with 2011's exceptional You're Next. Watching Kristy take on a group of masked thugs, transitioning from scared to stoic is invigorating for the genre, but boring for us. It causes a lack of palpability on director Oliver Blackburn's part, turning Kristy into a well-crafted chase flick with a strong lead rather than a finely tuned slasher. What ultimately drives Kristy further away from our warm embrace is its lack of commitment to its killer's motives, staggering here and there with talks of a purge or cleanse that feels like a cheap moralistic add-on, when the real horror comes from the unknown. Haley commits to Justine, while our hooded ring leader Violet (Ashley Greene) tepidly coasts through her Hot Topic phase with dry air and plummeting energy. There's more life in her masked goons than a single moody gaze, who come off as cosplays of Doctor Doom at Comic-Con than anything else, yet make it work due to the DIY nature of it all. While it may be beautifully shot, it's considerably unfocused, a fitfully paced slasher that loses itself in its attempts at injecting the genre with something fresh, causing the rest of Kristy to quickly decompose.

Staying behind at college during the weekend, a lonely student finds herself stalked by a group of deranged psychos participating in an internet-themed killing game of tormenting and killing women and must find a way of eluding her tormentors and ending the game.While there were some big problems here, there's also a ton of positive elements to be found within here. What really stands this one up is the sheer randomness and utter normality of what's going on here, managing to take something that could very well happen and putting a terrifying twist onto it. Setting up the initial encounter from the mini-mart encounter and then allowing the ensuing action to come from that is quite terrifying, especially with the taunting and video-work done throughout that show how they've been following her from the beginning makes for a truly chilling set-up that gives this a really strong feel here. That tormenting here is top-notch as well as the relentless nature of their assaults mean a plethora of fantastic stalking and encounters throughout which make for plenty of fun times here, as the scenes in the dorm where she stumbles upon the concept of the group coming after her, the discovery of the dead bodies which ironically comes at the very beginning of the chase and the tense confrontations in the main dining hall that set up the later chasing throughout here. As well, the confrontations here on the rest of the campus make for a complete vision of what they're attempting to accomplish here with the battle at the maintenance shack, the parking garage ambush and the delightful stalking in the library and swimming pool give this a great sense of thrilling action alongside the brutality in which they continually mete out at her expense. These here are what work for this one as there's a few detrimental flaws here at play. The biggest issue here is the fact that the group here is entirely unimposing and non-threatening, almost to the point of being comical rather than threatening. The comical tin-foil masks and blunt instruments used for weaponry here doesn't really inspire much fear, and especially considering the ease of which they're defeated in actual brawling confrontations makes it seem all the more unlikely why that wasn't a more focal option earlier as they're defeated here with surprising ease considering they're supposed to be vicious tormentors who get their fix videotaping these crimes and intimidating victims, making it seem like we're supposed to be afraid of them because they told us to be rather than using their on-screen actions to do so for them. As well, another big flaw here is the fact that there's just absolutely nothing all that well thought-out about the actual website that's supposedly driving this killing spree, which is so shrouded in mystery that there's not only nothing known about what they're actually trying to accomplish here with their rampage but also what is the appeal of going out filming these violent deaths as a line at the end shows that this is a nationwide problem. Still, there's a lot more to like here which makes this one quite enjoyable.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, drug use and sounds of off- screen animal torture.