Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Robyn August
Starring: MC Huff, Jenna Z. Alvarez, Emily Hall, Nicole Lovince, Tom Kiesche
Director Robyn August opens his postmodern backwoods slasher
KillHer with an in-media-res flash-forward that might have
been taken from any number of movies of its ilk. An attractive young
blonde woman runs screaming through the woods, the
Evil Dead style tracking camera seemingly assuming the POV
of some would-be attacker. By the time we return to that scene later in
the narrative, it plays very differently as by that point August has
twisted our expectations of how these films play out.
The blonde in question is Eddie (MC Huff), the boisterous BFF of
Mattie (Jenna Z. Alvarez), an affable type who has "Final Girl"
written all over her. We meet them as Eddie dons a scary mask and plays
a prank on her friend, who is about to get married to her boyfriend
Jagger (Jack Schumacher). Eddie is something of a female cousin
of the horror geek played by Matthew Lillard in Scream, though she's nowhere near as obnoxious. Huff and Alvarez have a
charming little dynamic that allows us to instantly warm to the pair,
which makes us immediately dislike their other two "friends", Jess (Emily Hall) and Rae (Nicole Lovince), a snarky pair of mean girls who make
jokes behind Mattie's back and to Eddie's face.
Despite their seeming mismatched relationship, the quartet heads deep
into the woods for a pre-bachelorette party, where Mattie expects to be
joined by Jagger. Pitching their tent next to an empty tent they assume
belongs to Jagger, the girls are surprised to find it occupied by the
ironically named Mr. Rogers (Tom Kiesche, author of the
screenplay), a burly man who bears a worrying resemblance to the killer
from
Wolf Creek. He's also got a tent full of weapons and is none too happy to find
four squealing girls pitched next door.
With everything set in place for a seemingly conventional "girls hunted
in the woods by maniacal killer" thriller, August and Kiesche begin
dismantling our expectations like a tent on a Bank Holiday Monday
morning. The girls joke about how stupidly the protagonists of horror
movies tend to act, yet we watch as they tick off the very same mistakes
themselves. Through flashbacks to events a week earlier, we realise that
all is not what it seems and someone has ulterior motives.
You may well guess who the killer is before the mid-movie reveal, but
without spilling the beans I'll just say that thanks to an enthusiastic
performance from the performer in question, the movie is given an extra
boost of energy often lacking from similar fare. Unlike many backwoods
slashers, which force us to spend a ridiculous amount of time watching
the heroes and potential victims trek through the woods before the
action kicks in, August gets things going quite early while also keeping
us guessing about certain details of what exactly is afoot here. The
movie zips along, gobbling its 88 minutes like Pacman on steroids.
If there's one complaint it's that KillHer can't quite
decide on the tone of its comedy. It works best when mining a
particularly dark strand of humour, not so much when it resorts to
Troma-esque silliness in its final act. But there's enough here to
suggest that with a slightly more consistent vision, the directing and
writing duo of August and Kiesche have enough distinctive talent to eke
out a place in the crowded field of indie horror.
