Girl Gone Bad

Girl Gone Bad is a pretty solid feature debut from director Kevin Schultz.

A reasonably satisfying vicarious revenge story of a young woman who finds out how dark she can get when push comes to shove - or, as the case may be, when push comes to having one's girlfriend murdered with an axe.

The story clips along nicely for the most part, with the slight caveat that some of the flashbacks slow the movie down a touch - but never in too detrimental of a way, and the pacing through the meat of the story is always on point. The cinematography is relatively simple but accomplished enough and the sound design works well throughout. Some of the soundtrack choices hint at the meagre budget but, hey... it is a low budget indie, and again, a decent one.

The highlights come from the two leads, Alison Thornton and Nemo Cartwright are engaging and in peak form. I will note some of the other performances aren't as proficient but the story revolves almost entirely around two folks and they shine. Thornton in particular digs deep and shows some serious skill... under less competent directing and/or a less talented actor and the story might have waned as the character of Samantha falls, rather quickly, into some murky moral territory but I found myself right there with the film as went on the ride.

Overall a well made and mostly polished film, impressive as a debut and heightened by some wonderful performances from the top. It's not gonna blow your socks off, but it's definitely worth the watch if you like a little low budget indie horror in your life.

It is a tight movie, with Samantha's friend Amanda killed early, leaving Samantha to deal with Lester. Samantha is presented as a very smart 16 y/o, who is trusted by her single mother to stay on the up and up. Her mother is trying to connect her life up again, and leaves for the night. Lester, a cop, is not a good guy, having killed Amanda and is prepared to kill Samantha. Samantha manages to turn the tables on him, and ties him up in the basement and proceeds to visit unpleasantness upon him. One has to suspend some belief as to how she got him down to the basement and secured. And also how she came to inflict some of the damage on him, as that suggests prior knowledge of how. So most of it takes place in the house and basement. The fourth act is sort of confusing, although it does explain some of the background leading up to what happened. And perhaps in the last scene, Samantha gives a really great performance, to contrast with what we first see about her. But also out of character. It could easily have been a better movie. But it does give a lot of 16 y/o girl angst.

Getting home after seeing The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022-also reviewed) at the cinema with a friend, I was pleased to discover that I had got back just in time for the latest stream release at the film festival Cine-Excess, leading to me joining the jury.

Note:Review contains some plot details.

View on the film:

Detailing in a discussion after the screening/stream that the project had begun getting planned in 2017, with filming kicking off straight after lockdown was lifted, writer/director Kevin Schultz makes his feature film debut with a blunt-force, visceral Slasher atmosphere, setting the foundation with a excellent, extended one-take tracking shot, that Schultz & editor/cinematographer James Clark slice into, with close-ups on the bursts of gore.

Spending the majority of the title at in-door locations with just two people, Schultz dices a claustrophobic atmosphere from winding panning shots circling the brutal exchanges between Ron and Samantha,which shatter to whip-pans towards the blood-drench Slasher set-pieces.

Given only slivers to work from, Alison Thornton and Alex Zahara give very good performances as Samantha and Ron, with Thornton having Samantha's rage from the murder of her girlfriend burn through into her acts of revenge,while Zahara holds Ron's smirk,as he refuses to answer Samantha's questions over his deadly attacks.

Describing the film as "John Carpenter's Mean Girls", the screenplay by Schultz sadly misses getting near the mark of either, due to attempts at macabre humour coming off forced and flat, the longer Ron is spent tied up (which is for the majority of the film), the less dangerous the character is made to look,all wrapped up in shallow dips into Samantha's romantic past, that leave her an empty void of vengeance,as she is declared not guilty.