Last Girl Standing

Benjamin R. Moody's story is a dark, cynical next chapter in the final girl persona. Although the film starts with a strong, gory opening it soon turns to Indie driven character study with lofty amounts of solemn atmosphere. The cast get into their characters and for the most part give strong performances. They play up the quirky but familiar stereotypes nicely. "Last Girl Standing" goes into a deep drama mode after the first scenes, but it is an evenly paced, tense rise to a bloody climax.

The special effects are worth watching the film. It is bloody, and gory and brutal. It has all the elements of giallo, grindhouse, and splatter gore neatly tied up in one hell of a bloody third act. The middle moves toward atmospheric, and macabre thriller, but the story is strong, and the blood is gore is in your face. Definitely a big plus for "Last Girl Standing". I do think the suspense and intensity could have contained more power, but whateve, all in all this is a good, indie American giallo horror that most indie fans will dig.

The movie starts with a brutal massacre a-la-Jason-Voorhees courtesy of a masked man called "The Hunter". In this sequence we receive the first batch of slasher movies clichés, last "heroine" and all. Of course, she kills the bad guy (obviously) and from there we jump 4-5 years into that last survivor's life.

Camryn is just a typical girl struggling with all the aftermath of that horrible experience. But, unlike what we see in most of these girls in other movies (the last survivor trying to go on with her life), she is a very shy and almost obnoxious kind of girl. No new friends, no nothing...except for her job.

Aside for the daily nightmares, everything is OK in her life until one day Nick arrives to her job, as the new cashier. And then, all of a sudden and without any sort of rational explanation, weird things start to happen and Camryn's life goes to hell.

At that point, we receive a new batch of clichés: now for a "is it real or not?" type of thriller.

And then...13 minutes before the movie ends we need to endure the beginning of one of the worst endings I have ever seen.

The only "redeeming value" of this movie are the practical FX for the killings. They're pretty good, especially for an indie flick.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is complete garbage. The movie is predictable as hell, so much that there's simply no way that anyone will not know how it will end. It's just a matter of "expertise" at these kind of movies: if you've seen a lot of them you can predict that lame ending more than an hour before it arrives. If this is the first time you see one of these then you'll see the ending coming 15-20 minutes before. And if no matter who the viewer is he/she can predict the ending from miles away...you have a very very bad movie in your hands.

Other than the aforementioned FX dept. Writer/Director Benjamin R. Moody can't seem to do anything "right": photography is bad, the script is awful, acting is weak and it doesn't have one shred of originality. Anywhere.

The concept of "What happens to the final girl after the credits roll?" is very interesting and has the potential for greatness. Unfortunately this movie does it in an uninteresting and very dull way. Suffice to say that if you've seen a lot of slasher movies in your life then you've basically seen this one. Because although it may seem like an original idea, the way Mr. Moody did it is just...well the opposite of that.

And if you were thinking "well, at least it's a scary movie"...well no, it has nothing actually scary in it, except for maybe 60-90 seconds of mildly "scary" stuff.

Don't waste your time with this movie. It's boring as hell, as derivative as a high school project and has almost nothing to offer.

The other reviewers have been very generous with their scores. I really can't see anything of merit in this movie.

The plot is extremely poor, spending a long time to build to the easily predictable ending. Human interaction is very forced and unnatural. I was irritated throughout the movie by it's stupid events and ridiculous character reactions.

I've seen a lot of bad movies but generally 90% of them have some kind of redeeming element even if it's just unintentionally funny. This movie really doesn't have anything. The entire production was unimaginative and bland.

Apparently the director's reason for making this cheap, independent slasher movie was the question "what happens to the final girl after the credits roll?". He answers his own question in a no budget way in this derivative and uninteresting movie, that seems to hinge on a familiar old twist that I already saw played out - better - in previous slasher sequels and the like. It's hardly original.

Akasha Villalobos plays the sole survivor of a massacre at the hands of a bizarrely-costumed killer in the film's opening sequence. She struggles to adapt to normal life afterwards, but ends up alienating herself from her social group. The problem the viewer has is that the character is completely unlikeable and as an actress Villalobos is quite horrible, never displaying a moment of emotion despite her character's ordeal.

Of course it transpires that the bloodshed isn't over yet as LAST GIRL STANDING hinges on a major twist ending involving another killer. The cheap gore effects flow freely here but the twist itself is quite laughable and overstated. Sadly this is a film that never quite manages to overcome a lack of talent and budget and ends up being completely forgettable as a result.

I don't know why others have felt this movie deserves such negativity in their reviews.

The story is good and the acting and technical aspects of the film are professional and of a high standard.

I found I was drawn into the story as each actor played their character brilliantly - especially the gorgeous Akasha Villalobos and stunning Danielle Evon Ploeger.

The film won't win any awards for flashy special effects or groundbreaking technical work - but its not that kind of film. It is a solid, well-made movie which tells a believable story.