The Girl Who Got Away

I was really into this movie and it seemed to be a good thriller but with all the twists and turns unexplained instead of satisfaction I was left confused ultimately.

We are introduced to Christina, the only survivor of a house of horrors. Although there is gore, this is really not a horror movie. Elizabeth Caulfield kidnapped children, each one a year after the previous one, and killed all but Christina. Christina is making a new life for herself as a teacher, when Elizabeth Caulfield escapes during a traffic accident while being transferred. Police are certain she will track down Christina, but Christina won't run, saying "she took everything from me once. I can't let that happen again." It is a small town, and one officer, Jamie, winds up trying to protect her. Jamie perhaps plays the best role of any of them, and he starts to realize that not everything adds up, and goes over the case. He finds there are lots of secrets. As the search for Elizabeth continues, the body count in that small town starts to climb, almost anyone who is connected with Christina. While there is a simmering pot at the start, it slowly starts to raise to a boil. And those are some of the problems with the film. Whether it is the script, the editing or characters, it gets confusing near the end. It is however, worth staying to the end.

One day in 1998 in the town of Mesena, New York the serial killer Elizabeth Caulfield is arrested. This brings to an end ten years where five young girls were kidnapped. Only one survived; Christina Bowden. Twenty years later and Christina is still living in Mesena where she works as a teacher and is contemplating adopting a troubled teenage girl. Then one day Elizabeth Caulfield escapes from custody. Christina is warned by police officer Jamie Nwosu but refuses to leave town; soon people close to her start turning up dead... it looks as if Caulfield is after the girl who got away. Or is there more to it than that?

This film got off to a solid start and progresses well enough. In many ways it goes as expected; that is to say there are plenty of twists, some better than others. Most of the murders appear off screen but those that are shown are reasonably but not excessively gory. The Upstate New York setting was good although much of the action takes place indoors. The acting is solid enough, nothing to trouble the awards panels but certainly not poor, at least not in the main roles. At a little under two hours it is a bit too long; it could have done with trilling it down by ten to twenty minutes. Overall I'd not say this was a must watch but it is okay if you enjoy the genre.

I felt like there were a lot of spaces i had to assume and fill in the blanks but not necessarily in a bad or tiring way. I got confused but then would think it was going one way and then confusion again. It was worth the watch but for the length of the movie i would expect them to be able to add in more details or explain things better because there does seem to be an issue with getting the storyline across without any plot holes/doing it smoothly. The acting was also... questionable at parts?? Overall i wouldn't watch it again but i'd definitely recommend it to other people if they want a good mystery/horror movie.

This is an odd film with long scenes of dialogue that go on too long and other scenes with sudden fits of explosive violence. It reminded me a lot of 1982's ALONE IN THE DARK in that manner. TGWGA is not terrible, definitely not incompetent. The script and the editing needed to be more focused and tightened. As an editor of 15+ years, I saw many pauses that could have been pulled up and bits of repetitive dialogue that could have been trimmed to cut a good 10 minutes out of this film without losing a single scene, although I would have jettisoned the one truly bad scene with the social worker at Christina's home late in the movie. It's not well acted and is unintentionally funny. At 116 minutes, many will find this movie to be plodding, not thrilling.

I wish this thriller had a little less talk and a little more thrill to it. I wish the backstory of the serial killer was fleshed out a bit more and that the movie had less characters/subplots. I hope the makers of this film get a chance to make another movie and hone their skills because there's definitely talent behind the camera.