What happens once the movie ends?

Semi spoilers ahead!!!

For those of you that have read anything that I've written you know I love a good slasher film. In fact, my favorite movie is Halloween. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about a movie that was supposed to be centered around what happens to the Final Girl after the killing ends.

---

Last Girl Standing presents itself as a movie that explores what happens to the quintessential final girl after the movie ends. Described by the tagline "She survived a brutal massacre, but lost her life. What happens to the final girl after the credits roll?", Last Girl Standing promises to show you what happens to the survivor after the dust settles.

But does it really?

Ugh, you guys. I wanted it to. I really really really wanted it to...

---

The movie follows final girl, Camryn, as she struggles to make a life for herself after surviving the killer, dubbed The Hunter, kills all of her friends on a camping trip. The movie starts at the end, showing that final ten minutes of a good slasher film where the killer and the final girl have their last encounter. You think it's all over for her and then she accidentally sets off one of his own traps that misses her and kills him. (A great ending and a really interesting beginning!) Cut to a few years later where we see our heroine struggling to be 'normal' as she works a menial job and wakes up from nightmares every night.

It was slow at best for most of the movie. We watch her try and deal with her flashbacks and hallucinations all while learning to be around other people again. I'm not sure if it's because I wanted the killer to come back to life or if it's because I had a hard time believing the supporting characters, but for 90% of the movie I just hoped they all died in the end. I got my wish, thank the slasher gods, but it certainly wasn't in the way I thought. Which for me actually was the best part of the movie.

I liked where Benjamin R Moody, the writer and director, was going but he took a long time getting there. I suppose part of the reasoning behind that was to show the difference between the action of all the killing and the monotony of her regular day to day life. The film did a good job illustrating the impact that such a heinous situation had on our final girl and the lead actress, Akasha Villalobos, did a wonderful job portraying her. You could feel her pain and her survivors guilt. But the build up was boring and unbelievable - in a different way than a masked man wearing a hockey mask killing everyone is! The group that she befriends and the romantic lead seem to accept her literally going psycho without any explanation, like hitting someone at a bar over the head for no reason with a beer bottle is just a small character flaw.

Overall, I'd say that while it certainly wasn't a bad movie, it felt more like a psychological study of our heroine and less of the slasher film that one would have hoped. Perhaps if I had gone into it thinking there was going to be no killing, I'd have enjoyed it more. It did give us our stereotypical final girl at the beginning and the end of the film; it just forget to give us the suspense and excitement. Maybe if it were shown as a documentary à la The Blair Witch some of the slowness could have been forgiven. I'm interested in seeing if more filmmakers try and go back to the roots of the slasher film and analyze the final girl. Mostly the aftermath is addressed in a sequel before all of the trouble begins. This idea that there is life after the final stab is a fascinating concept and isn't discussed very often. If someone can come up with an engrossing middle to the story, it could be a movie worth watching. If you are looking for another good slasher film, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a study of what happens to the final girl once all the bodies are buried this shows a compelling argument. To me, it was less entertainment and more case study.

---

Follow me @ekpickle