Bad Girl

This movie lost the plot. It seem like the writers had a 100 different ideas for the climax for this film. The writers couldn't decide which idea to go with, so they decided to throw them all out there to see which one sticks. What happened was truly an insult to my intelligence. The last half of the film is stunningly stupid with all the characters making one monumental error after another. I basically thought that they all deserve what happens to them.

I do have to say that the first half of the film wasn't too bad. I did like the premise of the bad, party girl meeting her match with the psychotic girl turning up the trouble making ways to a whole another degree. It made me realize how innocent the party girl basically is and I was able to sympathize with her. That is a positive. I do think both girls in this film did a good job in their portrayals. This script was badly botched and not even decent acting from the two actresses could save this film. I will give this film a 3/10 rating.

Bad Girl starts out as one thing and becomes something else. This is reminiscent, almost a homage, to the thriller flicks of the late eighties, early nineties, comparable to such films as The Hand the Rocks the Cradle, The Stepfather and most notably Fatal Attraction. While nowhere in that league, this film is quite serviceable by its conclusion. The standout elements are not the story, writing or direction, but the performances of the two leads, the girls. The father, however, is just awful. He's not directed very well either, which doesn't help. The other element that is noticeable throughout is the soundtrack. It wasn't until the credits that I saw the name of Warren Ellis. A brilliant musician and composer. The music is probably the highlight of the film. Subtle most of the time. The cinematography is quite solid also. Sadly the writing and directing let it down. The first half hour is slow, predictable, cheesy, unrealistic and annoying. It's a shame because you've already lost any sympathy for any of the characters by the time the story shifts into gear. They needed to have more depth, more rounded characterization for the audience to be drawn into their story. As it stands, it becomes something of a stock standard thriller, though quite well done. A missed opportunity and more of a showcase for the talents of its young leads. Mr Ellis has already proven himself many times over. Worth your time, sure, but go in with low expectations, persevere and you may just enjoy it for what it is.

I saw this film at the 'Roze Filmdagen'; the Amsterdam LGBTQ film festival. To be honest, it wasn't my first choice. As a gay man I'd rather seen a gay men's story...

But I was positively surprised by the quality of this film. All the production-work, all of the art-direction and all the camera-work are just great. And I really enjoyed the acting of especially Samara Weaving and Sara West, the two main actors, who put down a very involving performance. I guess the story isn't spectacularly inventive, but within it's genre it's a nice piece of work that kept me in suspense during the whole movie.

This is one of those flicks you would not want to pay to see, but for free if you can't sleep one night and there are no commercial interruptions... maybe. Always hard to create horror comedy as this one clearly shows. Even so I was not kicking myself at the end for 1 1/2 hours totally wasted. Don't watch or refuse to watch because of an alleged "gay" angle. There is NO real angle to this, just somewhat tolerable entertainment. Mainly I just found myself enjoying Weaving, though there was nothing noteworthy about her character or performance. Is there anything great or even good in this entire endeavor? Not really, but I still found myself mildly entertained on a sleepless night at 3 am. Can't claim I was totally coherent, but not under the influence of anything other than natural grogginess.

It's an intense story that engages me throughout. The acting is good, and the film is thrilling.