The description of this movie is misleading. It said something along the lines of “Masked killers are recreating a video game and hunting women.” That very much doesn’t make sense at all as you start watching this.
It starts out with a scene between two girls (Kayla and Maddie) who are clearly life long friends, but are having a bit of a spat. The idea of leaving the city turns into an argument that doesn’t end well. But worse is that when Kayla walks away, the other is kidnapped! Taking a moment to realize what is happening, Maddie tells Kayla to run. Instead another kidnapper takes her too.
Kayla wakes up in a coffin. Luckily it isn’t six feet deep. That would suck. And be a short movie. It doesn’t take long to encounter some others in this new place she finds herself. There are some other girls as well as some masked guys that are clearly not on the side of the girls.
I’m not going to go into a detailed review of this. Because the idea is better than the execution. Mostly. There are some really good moments of execution. I’m not knocking it, just pointing out that the concept here was a home run. There were 8 girls who were kidnapped, and there are 8 bad guys. And they are paired up. The girls don’t know it though. Each bad guy has his own final girl and they appear to be able to connect to them by looking at their face. There are some sort of cybernetic eye implants that connect them. Interestingly, if a final girl dies, the bad guy paired with her has his cybernetic explode. It’s messy. So the killers are trying to take out the other 7 killers by either fighting them direct or taking out their final girl.
And I like this idea. A lot. Kayla is not someone who is a fighter, but she has to adapt and do so with a quickness. She knows her friend Maddie is likely somewhere in this area and she is determined to find her. I will say this is actually also a terrible plot point. Because Maddie is a fighter. So her needing to have Kayla come rescue her doesn’t ring true. And then we have this idea that Maddie is being held in a mine, so the plan is go to the mine and rescue her. The idea of a prisoner is dumb. The idea that Maddie is waiting to be rescued makes no sense.
A couple of times there were moments that I was shocked by. Didn’t see coming. In large part because this concept was pretty unique. And for that, I want to start at 10 stars, but there were some problems that absolutely keep it from being a 10. This is a very solid 8 though. And I would absolutely add it to my shelf.
Oh yeah, the movie practically ends with a stinger. The opening had a different feel to the movie, and the end has a different feel. We see a bit behind the curtain about what the plan was with the set up. And I found myself wanting a sequel. Been awhile though, so I’m thinking a follow up is unlikely. But man it could be interesting.