The Girl Who Got Away

One day in 1998 in the town of Mesena, New York the serial killer Elizabeth Caulfield is arrested. This brings to an end ten years where five young girls were kidnapped. Only one survived; Christina Bowden. Twenty years later and Christina is still living in Mesena where she works as a teacher and is contemplating adopting a troubled teenage girl. Then one day Elizabeth Caulfield escapes from custody. Christina is warned by police officer Jamie Nwosu but refuses to leave town; soon people close to her start turning up dead... it looks as if Caulfield is after the girl who got away. Or is there more to it than that?

This film got off to a solid start and progresses well enough. In many ways it goes as expected; that is to say there are plenty of twists, some better than others. Most of the murders appear off screen but those that are shown are reasonably but not excessively gory. The Upstate New York setting was good although much of the action takes place indoors. The acting is solid enough, nothing to trouble the awards panels but certainly not poor, at least not in the main roles. At a little under two hours it is a bit too long; it could have done with trilling it down by ten to twenty minutes. Overall I'd not say this was a must watch but it is okay if you enjoy the genre.

This was an interesting one and done for me. You have to be patient as it is quite slow moving, but it does move and slowly reveal some twists and turns in the plot. If you want full on terror and horror, then you may not be so thrilled here. :( The acting was pretty good and the storyline was creepy, but they really didn't let us see what happen all those years to those girls, so that was left to your imagination. Which I found irritating.

Overall, a decent slow burn mystery that people with patience and not here for a gore-fest will probably enjoy watching, at least once.

This is an odd film with long scenes of dialogue that go on too long and other scenes with sudden fits of explosive violence. It reminded me a lot of 1982's ALONE IN THE DARK in that manner. TGWGA is not terrible, definitely not incompetent. The script and the editing needed to be more focused and tightened. As an editor of 15+ years, I saw many pauses that could have been pulled up and bits of repetitive dialogue that could have been trimmed to cut a good 10 minutes out of this film without losing a single scene, although I would have jettisoned the one truly bad scene with the social worker at Christina's home late in the movie. It's not well acted and is unintentionally funny. At 116 minutes, many will find this movie to be plodding, not thrilling.

I wish this thriller had a little less talk and a little more thrill to it. I wish the backstory of the serial killer was fleshed out a bit more and that the movie had less characters/subplots. I hope the makers of this film get a chance to make another movie and hone their skills because there's definitely talent behind the camera.

This is a visually captivating psychological thriller that I really enjoyed. This is def more silence of the lambs then Halloween though.

I am all about imagery and the cinematography here does a great job of showing the emotional weight of the story, making you feel the trauma and fear that the characters experience.

The play between shadow and light is particularly effective, with dimly lit scenes that create a sense of unease. This visual style reflects Christina's inner struggles, played by Lexi Johnson. You can really feel the weight of her past which helps you connect with her journey.

The settings throughout the film-ranging from tight, shadowy interiors to wide, empty landscapes-enhance the mood.

This film is probably not for everyone I will say that but If you appreciate films that use visuals to tell deep emotional, sometimes crazy stories, this one is definitely worth a watch!

I felt like there were a lot of spaces i had to assume and fill in the blanks but not necessarily in a bad or tiring way. I got confused but then would think it was going one way and then confusion again. It was worth the watch but for the length of the movie i would expect them to be able to add in more details or explain things better because there does seem to be an issue with getting the storyline across without any plot holes/doing it smoothly. The acting was also... questionable at parts?? Overall i wouldn't watch it again but i'd definitely recommend it to other people if they want a good mystery/horror movie.