Girl Gone Bad is a pretty solid feature debut from director Kevin Schultz.
A reasonably satisfying vicarious revenge story of a young woman who finds out how dark she can get when push comes to shove - or, as the case may be, when push comes to having one's girlfriend murdered with an axe.
The story clips along nicely for the most part, with the slight caveat that some of the flashbacks slow the movie down a touch - but never in too detrimental of a way, and the pacing through the meat of the story is always on point. The cinematography is relatively simple but accomplished enough and the sound design works well throughout. Some of the soundtrack choices hint at the meagre budget but, hey... it is a low budget indie, and again, a decent one.
The highlights come from the two leads, Alison Thornton and Nemo Cartwright are engaging and in peak form. I will note some of the other performances aren't as proficient but the story revolves almost entirely around two folks and they shine. Thornton in particular digs deep and shows some serious skill... under less competent directing and/or a less talented actor and the story might have waned as the character of Samantha falls, rather quickly, into some murky moral territory but I found myself right there with the film as went on the ride.
Overall a well made and mostly polished film, impressive as a debut and heightened by some wonderful performances from the top. It's not gonna blow your socks off, but it's definitely worth the watch if you like a little low budget indie horror in your life.
