Rating: ***
Starring: Haley Bennett, Ashley Greene
Adding into the considerably small number of Thanksgiving-themed slashers (and seemingly running on a very simplistic formula), Kristy follows Justine, a studious college girl who decided to stay on campus while her boyfriend and friends go home for Thanksgiving. In the first fifteen minutes, we see how alone she is and, save for a couple of guards, the whole place is pretty much her own oyster, so isn't too long before she ran out of chores and other personal stuff to do and decided to go out and buy herself a snack or two.Driving to a nearby convenience store, Justine encounters Violet, a hooded punkette with a knack for piercings who definitely gave her the chills, even more so when it becomes apparent she followed her all the way to campus. The thing is, Violet isn't alone; with her is a trio of masked and hooded men who are a part of an online Satanic cult dedicated on murdering random girls who they all nicknamed "Kristy", recording the kills and sharing it on a site as a sign of dedication to their war against God. Chased through empty hallways and libraries, bearing witness as they murder anybody that got in the way, it soon becomes dead clear for Justine that the only way to live through their game of Cat-and-Mouse is to fight back.
For truth's worth, Kristy isn't really anything new; as mentioned above, it's a simple movie about a girl being stalked by a pack of merciless killers so it relies a lot on building tension, meaning we get scenes in the dark where a killer or two are just feet away from our lead, people calling out in thick fog, and all of those classic slasher cliches. It works, I'll give the movie that, but comparing this with its ilk, Kristy hasn't done much to improve itself, especially when the kills (though plentiful) weren't all that inventive and some little plot holes and inconsistencies still got in the way. (How the heck can the Kristy killers text if they use cellphone jammers?)Still, all's not lost; performances are pretty solid seeing the movie only has one main character to focus on. Haley Bennett took her role as Justine with much quirk and gentleness around the first few minutes right before the attacks. Her character is relatively normal so she's not hard to relate and root for, especially once she decided to gut up and turn the tables on her attackers. And speaking of which, the murderous group did have their moments of being imposing; though they are human behind their disguises and their motives are a tad cheesy, they're organized and well-experienced enough to read their prey's move with so much animalistic instinct that it's threatening. And with the brooding direction of these attacks and the workable giallo-inspired tint-lighting, I can honestly say that Kristy is redeemed fairly with these fair production quality and talent.
The movie ends with an indication that there might be more coming from this murder-cult. Should this be a hint of a future sequel at hand or not, Kristy's simplistic campus slasher is watchable on its own, either rented for a viewing or bought for your growing collection. It may not had brought out anything out of the ordinary for our bodycounting kicks but at least it played the game right.Bodycount:
1 female found with throat cut
1 female gets a throat cut with a meat hook (video)
1 female murdered, method unknown (video)
1 male bludgeoned with a baseball bat
1 male found murdered
1 dog killed offcamera
1 male hanged with a garden hose
1 male stabbed on the gut with a meat hook
1 male crushed against the wall with a car
1 male drowned in a pool
1 male hit on the head with a nailed baseball bat
1 female set on fire with sodium nitrate
Total: 12
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