KillHer review.
KillHer embraces its wildest impulses to deliver something more than you expect.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
KillHer
Directed by Robyn August
Written by Tom Kiesche
Starring M.C. Huff, Emily Hall, Jenna Z. Alvarez, Nicole Lovince, Tom Kiesche, Harrison White, Jack Schumacher and Ron Roggé
KillHer Review
KillHer begins with a solid if familiar premise. A group of young women alone in the woods with a killer on the loose. It throws in some offhand comedy beats early on…lulling you into believing that you can comfortably predict the moves that the movie will make. Then it blows those expectations up and unleashes a wild second half of revelations and violence. KillHer delivers a fun ride to unexpected places.
Mattie (Jenna Z. Alvarez) is getting married. Her friend Eddie (M.C. Hutt) gathers other bridesmaids Jess (Emily Hall) and Roe (Nicole Lovince) for a bachelorette getaway in the woods. The creepy man one site over is only the start of their weekend in Hell.
The impressive thing about KillHer is how far it commits to being something that it isn’t. The first act of the movie feels like a decent low-budget slasher comedy. The characters discuss horror tropes on their way to the campsite…they even bring the mask that we’ll see used by the killer with them. It’s presented initially as a running joke…a game played by Eddie and Mattie to scare each other. Jokes about their inherently creepy situation in the woods as well as character comedic bits walk us through the introductory phase of a movie that appears to be heading towards entertaining but predictable.
Then we get our first flashback. There are a few flashbacks throughout KillHer that provide narrative altering backstory. Narrative altering for us…our characters are trying to survive a slasher movie either way. They just don’t know what kind until it’s too late. The commitment to chaos elevates KillHer from what you thought it would be to something far more memorable. And one performance stands out as the source of all the glorious madness.
Unfortunately, we can’t talk about that here. We don’t want to get into spoilers for a movie this close to its release. What I can tell you is that KillHer is a lot of fun. It doesn’t just take some unexpected paths…it lights them on fire laughing along the way. Each flashback clues us in further on the killer’s motive and mindset. Meanwhile…our characters discover things in a much more visceral and violent way. We’re clued into things a bit before they are…which leads to some fun moments.
There are more interesting set-ups than memorable kill scenes (though there are some of those as well) …but every aspect of KillHer is delivered with such manic glee that they will stick with you. One scene at a nearby cabin rental area is about as fun a murder scene as you’ll find this year. Not because of the violence…because of the pure joy the killer takes in unleashing it.
When you look back on the reveals…they aren’t so much shocking twists as they are redefinitions of what we thought we knew. Is that creepy neighbor Ed Rogers (Tom Kiesche) just a stereotypical red herring? Where is Mattie’s boyfriend and his friends? They were supposed to meet up in the woods. What’s with the animosity between Eddie and Mattie’s other friends? Will raccoons really gang up and try to eat a person in the woods?
We get answers to all these questions and more. KillHer ramps up its craziness from moment to moment…eventually ending up with a wildly entertaining killer for our main characters to contend with. When the film’s antagonist is unleashed…the movie becomes something completely new. A wildly entertaining murder stroll full of violence and lunacy. It flips the expected on its head by changing perspectives to something more fun and memorable.
But…again…we can’t talk about the how and the why of it. At least not yet. I suspect we may be having a conversation about aspects of KillHer at the end of the year come Scare Value Awards season. I’d recommend watching it before then. Because then, like in KillHer’s story…all bets are off.
Scare Value
Every new move that KillHer makes ratchets up the crazy factor. It goes off the rails in the best of ways. One wild performance creates a particularly memorable character…and gives KillHer some serious juice in its second half. What begins as a movie that you think will find its footing through comedic asides quickly becomes all about the insanity unleashed on the unsuspecting campers. A pleasant surprise.
3.5/5
KillHer Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
