KILLHER (2022)

New in select theaters and On Demand from Dark Sky Films!
Directed by Robyn August.
Written by Tom Kiesche.
Starring M.C. Huff, Jenna Z. Alvarez, Emily Hall, Nicole Lovince, Tom Kiesche, Harrison White, Jack Schumacher, Ron Roggé

Mattie (Jenna Z. Alvarez) and her best friends Eddie (M.C. Huff), Jess (Emily Hall) and Rae (Nicole Lovince) take a camping trip to the woods for a glamping bachelorette weekend, but when they discover a strange outdoorsman named Mr. Rogers (Tom Kiesche) has a tent next to theirs, they begin to suspect that he may be stalking them and gearing up to kill them. But in this cynical age of immediate assumptions of guilt, could the bachelorette’s be jumping to conclusions? Well, someone is killing people and if it isn’t Mr. Rogers, then who is it?

KILLHER is a big fat mess of a movie. It places four people who don’t really like each other in a desolate vacation that none of them really want to be in. It’s a film that seems to have been written backwards to get to the explosive finish without giving a lot of thought as to logically get there. Yes, there is a manipulative murderer in their midst, but the rest of the girls are required to be absolute idiots in order to fall for these manipulations. Instead of working off of character, the writer seemed to have an ending in mind and would make the characters do just about anything to get to it, which is not a good way to write a story.

On top of that, the girls in KILLHER are extremely unlikable. Either they either complaining, secretive or bitchy to one another. The story doesn’t convey why any of these girls are friends or why the seemingly wholesome bachelorette would like any of them. If anything, these girls exemplify the worst aspects of women portraying them as backstabbers, liars, cheaters, and just plain monsters to one another. While none of these characters are anything but cardboard cutouts, its even worse that immediately, if they see a man camping in their vicinity, they assume he is a psycho killer. Immediately, the horrible man, who was there before they got there, is the problem when things go bad. And while that isn’t the case, though the poster and story would try to lead you down this cliched road, there isn’t even much of a redemptive arc where the girls come to grips with judging this man so harshly in the beginning. Nope, why come to grips that your morally corrupt when you can have a girl power moment during the climax?

I’m sorry but this is one of those movies that feels like it was trying to subvert expectations, but in this day of subversion, every twist is predictable ages before the story finally decides to reveal it. And if KILLHER feels dated now, I can only imagine what this so-called forward thinking film will be seen as ten years from now. It’s just clumsily made from the get-go.

The acting is ok. All four gals are decent actresses and while they are acting out a dumb script that tries to subvert and ultimately, goes nowhere, they all seem capable and I look forward to other things with them in it. But while I am always open to new and different storytelling and different spins on the slasher genre, KILLHER lacks the originality and even a moral center. It’s practically bloodless, suspense-less, and simply a film that I just can’t recommend.

Check out the trailer here!!