Written and directed by Michael Morrissey
Starring Lexi Johnson, Chukwudi Iwuji, Kaye Tuckerman, Ned Van Zandt
Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes
In select theaters, video on demand and digital, August 20

by Audrey Callerstrom, Staff Writer

Credit where credit is due - The Girl Who Got Away puts an original spin on a familiar story. A young woman named Christina (Lexi Johnson) escaped the grasps of a serial killer when she was a young girl. Now, as a woman in her early 30s, the killer has escaped, and it’s clear that the killer is coming for Christina. I would not be remiss to see Christina as Halloween’s Laurie Strode, and the killer as Christina’s version of Michael Myers. This time, the killer is an older woman named Elizabeth (Kaye Tuckerman), who, about 15 years ago, kidnapped five girls. Four were found dead, and there was one who got away: Christina. The stage is set.

But the film is full of gaps, dead air, and repetitive and redundant scenes that clutter the film’s bloated two-hour running time. The Girl Who Got Away, the second feature from Michael Morrissey (Boy Wonder), needed someone to take a second look at the script. Does each scene serve a purpose? Could a scene be cut and not interrupt the story, or leave gaps? How do people behave when they watch it? Are they engaged and looking at the screen, or are they antsy, peaking at their phone whilst in their purse to check the time? The Girl Who Got Away could stand to lose 30 minutes of dead air, but even then, it would probably have stayed a mediocre TNT-type daytime watch. You wouldn’t seek it out, but if it were on TNT and you were in a hotel room and you just put down your luggage and turned it on and opened your chips, yeah, it’s fine.

Johnson maintains a steely reserve as Christina, a woman who went through a lifetime of trauma by the time she was old enough to drive. She’s a teacher now, and she’s working on adopting a young troubled girl named Lisa (Willow McCarthy). The film fails to develop the relationship between Christina and Lisa, and this storyline could have easily been written out. Christina sees in Lisa the troubled kid that she was, which we know because it’s exactly what Christina tells the social worker. But aside from Christina’s sleepwalking, we never really see that trauma. Christina is on high alert when Elizabeth escapes prison (like Michael Myers escaping the institution). The film drags and delays the inevitable, wasting time with multiple scenes where Sheriff Jamie (Chukwudi Iwuji) and Christina stand outside, arms crossed, talking about Elizabeth, Christina’s safety, and the all-too-slowly rising body count. Iwuji and Johnson both deliver solid, consistent performances, even given the redundancy and the ridiculousness of some of the character’s motivations (Jamie suspects Christina of the murders at one point, for no reason). The story structure lends itself to deja vu, the feeling that you’ve already seen this scene already.

There is brutal gore in this film, but it feels out of place. Spurting blood from an eye hole; visceral stabbing sounds as Elizabeth murders a woman in a public restroom. There’s no rhyme or reason to Elizabeth’s kills. She kills people we barely meet, or who are mentioned in passing. It doesn’t fit with the rest of the film, which plays more like a standard thriller. The Girl Who Got Away’s most suspenseful moment is the film’s opening scene which shows Christina’s escape. A man and a young boy are driving home from the boy’s baseball game. It’s late at night and the only sound we hear is the crunch of the gravel road against the tires. They pass a woman on the road in a bloody nightgown. Visually it’s eerie, effective, and there is an element of genuine surprise to how it develops, which I can’t say for the rest of this lopsided film.