Panic Fest Film Festival Coverage
Killington review
Relax…get murdered.
Festival movies generally will not contain spoilers. If we didn’t talk about a big spoiler here, however, we’d have nothing to talk about.
Killington
Directed by Mark Dudzinski
Written by Grace Day
Starring Sophie Sumner, Sarah Faye Beard, Sam Morales, Nikki McCallum, Brianna Cole, Matt Vita and Haultson Mann
Killington Review
I guess we should be thankful to Killington for switching up the standard influencer horror tropes. The norm for this recently inescapable subgenre is to present influencers as phony and punish them for their vapid, user lifestyles. Killington changes the formula. It presents the opposite thing and attempts to mine that for entertainment. An influencer who believes so heartily in her messages that failure to adhere to them literally drives her to murder. It’s a better idea than we’ve seen in the avalanche of similarly themed influencer horror movies. Unfortunately, the fun stops at an exciting elevator pitch.
Emily and friends are off to a dream weekend getaway. Her favorite famous yoga instructor has picked them as the contest winners for a bachelorette party weekend in Vermont. Better yet…the popular influencer will be attending the festivities in person. What could go wrong?
A lot, it turns out. Both in the narrative of the film and with the film itself. Killington is an, at times, excruciatingly slow movie. It takes a long time to discover if anything at all is actually going to happen. By the time things start to get going…there is no tension or suspense whatsoever. This is best described as a long wait for a train to slowly roll over people you don’t like. Killington fails to expand on an intriguing premise in ways that are exciting, surprising, or the least bit fun. Save for the final moments of the story…there’s not much here.
But there is that intriguing premise so let’s drill down on that. Kali (Sophie Sumner) is the yoga instructor in question. She hosts a bachelorette party weekend for bride to be Emily (Sarah Faye Beard) and her friends. Emily is excited to be a part of this…her friends not so much. They crave more traditional bachelorette party fun. Kali’s disdain for the women is immediately noticeable. Hers is a hardcore lifestyle of spiritual enlightenment and strict body care. There’s no place for big meals, booze, drugs, and strippers in her program.
That’s quality first act stuff. A competent build to a fun second act fueled by Kali’s wrath playing out in blood and carnage. That isn’t what we get. Kali grits her teeth through two full acts of Killington. The same set-up and lack of punchline over and over again. The story suppresses any fun that could come from the concept by withholding it beyond your ability to remain invested. By the time Kali finally starts to thin the herd…you’re over it. Not only are the characters all unremarkable at best…they also meet unexciting demises.
Outside of Kali’s psyche…there is nothing going on in Killington. It manages to make a murder spree boring. There may be a good joke there about a relaxing slasher film…but Killington never finds it. Instead, it demands too much patience for a climax that fails to elicit so much as a shrug. It’s almost more frustrating that the ending of the movie manages to work. It upends expectations in a way that you wish the rest of the movie could have figured out.
None of this is the fault of the cast. Sumner is well-suited to the role of Kali. She’s believable in every moment. She’s just not given enough to do. The friend group is full of underwritten characters. Disappointing given that Killington wasn’t spending its time doing anything else of note. Perhaps a commitment to character in the first half of the movie would have made the inevitable turn land better. At the very least it may have allowed us to care about the people who find themselves in peril.
Both halves of Killington let the other down. A more engaging build would have elevated the subdued slasher that unfolds later. An exciting slasher story would have forgiven the tedium of the first half. Somewhere there is a story that nails both sides and finally delivers on the influencer horror promise that so many have failed to keep. Killington is as far away from that as it gets.
Scare Value
Killington is an unfortunate misfire. It brings a twist on a well-worn idea to the table and then neglects to serve it anything substantial. A lack of interesting characters further sinks what could have been a quietly interesting build to a slasher finale. The slasher finale falls equally flat anyway. What’s left is a missed opportunity.
