KRISTY (2014)

 

(Director: Oliver “Olly” Blackburn. Screenwriter: Anthony Jaswinski.)

Review

KRISTY opens with several hoodie-wearing people leaving a female corpse, Heather Price (listed as “Dead Girl” on IMDb), in a gray-morning field while a newscast is heard telling how she’s been missing for three days.

Cut to working-class college student Justine Wells (Haley Bennett) getting ready to spend her Thanksgiving break in her dorm with her roommate Nicole (Erica Ash). Nicole flakes on her “stay-behind” (as Wayne, a college security guard calls it) with Justine when her dad surprises her with a trip to Aspen.

When Justine, alone, goes to a nearby minimart for late night food, she’s in-store stalked by a creepy young woman wearing sunglasses and a hoodie. Justine leaves the store after the creepy woman leaves, only to encounter her driving a muscle car on the road. Justine manages to lose her, makes it back to her dorm and takes a nap, thinking everything is okay despite the “weird” (her word) encounter with the pierced-lip, creepy woman (Violet, played by Ashley Greene). Everything is not okay, because she’s been followed by not one, but several hoodie-wearing strangers, and as her terrorizers up their assault tactics, it looks like Justine—although a capable fighter—might not survive the night.

KRISTY is a good, steady-build slasher film, with effective foreshadowing, solid acting, a few solid twists (the killers are not random), and equally effective cinematography (credit Crille Forsberg) and consistent, mostly entertaining flight-and-fight pacing (editor: Jeff Betancourt, THE GRUDGE, 2004)—aside from a few instances when Justine should end her would-be killers instead of running. KRISTY isn’t memorable, but it’s well-shot, well-written and tightly edited, a relatively non-gory flick that provides some welcome T-Day thrills and chills.

 

KRISTY’s other notable cast members include:

James Ransone (SINISTER, 2012) as Scott, Justine’s friend and would-be protector;

Chelsea Bruland, a stunt woman in quite a few films (including Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 2014) as Heather Price, or “Dead Girl” (as IMDb lists her role);

and

Mathew St. Patrick (SIX FEET UNDER, 2001-2005) as Wayne, a  night-shift security guard in Justine’s dorm.