Go Check Out Girl Gone Bad: Review

Girl Gone Bad is a horror/thriller written and directed by Kevin Schultz.  It tells the story of Samantha, a moody teen who is planning on spending time with her girlfriend Amanda while her mom is out of town.  While home, Samantha receives a disturbing text and realizes something terrible has happened to Amanda.  At the same time, she is shocked to learn that an intruder has entered her home and quickly finds out that these two events have much more in common than one would think.

Samantha’s suspicions are true; the unthinkable happened.  Somehow Samantha overpowers the intruder and holds him captive.  He confirms her suspicions and this quickly turns from a physical fight to a game of mental chess.  Samantha is heartbroken, full of vengeance, and plotting what her next move is going to be.  I got the impression that she was already an angst-ridden teen even before this intrusion.  Bitter for seemingly no reason and a bit snappy toward her mother.  Although those are likely just typical teen traits.

THE GOOD

This film had a decent story that I don’t think I’ve seen before.  Originality is always a plus.  There were a few flashback scenes featuring Samantha and Amanda that provided some context as to why they were so close.  Amanda was bullied a lot for being the eccentric girl at school and in the same instance, we see Samantha starting to get excluded from her own friend circle because of the interest she was showing towards Amanda.

Samantha was played by Alison Thornton and Nemo Cartwright played Les, the intruder ready to destroy Samantha’s life.  I thought both actors did a great job portraying the cat and mouse in this game of wills, strategy, and survival.  Do I think Samantha was taking things too far?  Oh yes.  Did she have a valid reason for what she was doing?  That’s questionable.  I suppose it depends on who you ask.  With a story that portrays love, heartache as well and vengeance, it can be difficult to determine what one would personally do in such a situation.  In the context of this film, it makes for a decent story.

THE BAD

Although some of the flashback scenes I felt were necessary to get some backstory on the characters, I did not think it was necessary to have as many as the movie portrayed.  The ending is up for debate.  It’s alluded to that Samantha becomes some sort of vigilante who plans to snuff out those who have wronged others.  I mean, I suppose that could be a direction she could go but it’s not very believable.

OVERALL

I thought this was a well-made film. I hope I did a good job of telling readers about the film without spilling all the beans on what truly took place (lol).  If you’re so inclined, I say check out Girl Gone Bad and make up your mind as to whether Samantha made the right decisions.

Girl Gone Bad is currently streaming on VOD.