Main cast: Abigail Breslin (Veronica), Wes Bentley (William), Alexander Ludwig (Jameson), Cameron Bright (Shane), Reece Thompson (Nelson), Logan Huffman (Daniel), and Emma Paetz (Jennifer)
Director: Tyler Shields
Jameson and his three bros are not the usual rowdy frat boys. What they do is that Jameson will pick up a blonde (his type) and invite her out on a date. On that date, he and his friends will dress up in suit and tie, talk nonsense, and then set the date loose in the woods before hunting her down and killing her. When Jameson picks up a new girl in town, Veronica, for another boys’ night out, the boys are in for a surprise. Not only is Veronica on to them, they are her target. She has been trained by her mentor, William, since she was a little girl for one purpose: to eliminate monsters like these boys from the human gene pool.
Final Girl has an interesting premise, but it sabotages much of its own possibilities by revealing early on whom and what Veronica really is. This is a slow-moving movie, with much of its attempts to build tension hinging on the boys slowly moving in for the kill only to get a surprise of their lives. Unfortunately, these homicidal frat boys are pretty lame on the whole. Only Alexander Ludwig makes a halfway decent impression as a sinister but still intriguing psychopath who, upon discovering that Veronica is kicking their asses, proposes marriage to her. The rest of the boys are lame and one-note: one is a crazy ax-swinging loser who is afraid of… clowns or something, another has incestuous feelings for his mother and is scared of what seems like ninjas, and one more is just paranoid that his girlfriend – Jameson’s ex – will discover what he does with the boys and leave him, or maybe she’s just go back to Jameson. These are all a bunch of sad people, and eliminating them would be an act of mercy.
Interestingly, the leads are currently in Ryan Murphy’s crap shows – Wes Bentley is giving blank stares in American Horror Story: Hotel while Abigail Breslin plays that Chanel who is actually a robot – Chanel Number 5, I believe – in Scream Queens. And guess what, they do the same thing here! Blank stares from Mr Bentley, and robotic acting from Ms Breslin. Speaking of the dear girl, she is miscast here. She may look pretty on the screen, but her delivery of her lines are flat and lack conviction, and she fights in a manner that feel fake. Not to mention, her physique lacks the kind of musculature that would make it believable for her to take down bigger-sized guys. It is hard to get into a movie when the lead character feels artificial and out of place.
Final Girl is worth a look if one comes across it on cable or for rental, if only to see Mr Ludwig does his best impersonation of a young Judd Nelson, but on the whole, it is basically one wasted opportunity.
