Why I Think Kristy Is Kind Of The Shit

Kristy is on Netflix. You should go watch it, because it's awesome.

The short version: it's about a poor college student, Justine, who can't afford a flight home for the Thanksgiving break, so she stays on campus. She borrows her roommate's BMW to go get some groceries at a convenience store and, while there, she has a weird run-in with a woman named Violet who turns out to be part of some sort of vaguely Satanic cult. Violet and her three co-cult-members follow Justine back to her dorm and hunt her around campus.

It's a straightforward setup, and it's a straightforward movie. But the details are what make the movie, like, totally super cool, and to talk about them, I have to get into at least minor spoilers. The spoiler free version: I thought the writing, especially the character work, was incredibly smart and subtle. It's one of those movies where most of the background is revealed through subtext rather than text, which I suspect might be why a lot of people don't care for Kristy; if you're checking your phone or whatever and only catching the broad strokes of the movie, it will feel a lot more rote than it actually is.

Small spoilers ahead. You've been warned.

I've heard complaints that the whole cult element was undercooked and it's true that we never really get much background on them, but I kind of loved that: I got the impression that the religious aspect of the killing was just a loose framework which gave a bunch of sociopathic meth-heads with low self-esteem an excuse to go kill rich girls who, in their eyes, have everything they (the sociopathic meth-heads with low self-esteem) do not. Justine was ultimately targeted because she was driving a BMW. If she'd shown up to the gas station in a beat up, dirty 1994 Honda Civic (I miss my car), then Violet probably would have left her alone. And, worse, she offered to buy something for Violet. That rich bitch!

But anyway, that idea (religion as a loose framework entitling the devotees to do what they want) is really to me. True believers in a vast, underground, Satanic cult seems a little far-fetched to me, but people who just want to find a cause that will vindicate their desire to kill people who make them feel bad about themselves and then post videos of said murder online? That feels uncomfortably plausible.

I also loved the journey that Justine goes on. Yeah, it's from victim to fighter which, sure, not exactly plumbing the depths of originality. But she's interesting, smart and resourceful from the beginning and that goes pretty damn far for me. It's really only her level of aggressiveness that changes, and the shift is really specific. There's a moment toward the middle of the movie when something horrible happens in front of Justine and she starts repeating the word no, chanting it, unable to do anything else with the situation presented to her, and the word acts as a sort of pivot point. Her delivery of the word shifts with each repetition until she's gone from helpless to pissed. Now, she's going to kill these motherfuckers.

**End Spoilers**

It's also just really simply and beautifully shot and cut, which is something I've become increasingly appreciative of as I get older. I'm not terribly interested in flashy camera work any more and I really like directors that let the writing and the acting do a lot of the heavy lifting vis a vis storytelling.

Look, to some extent, the movie is what it is, but it kind of hits all of my sweet spots: deceptively complex villains, character development through action, a smart, capable protagonist and a slasher-y premise. Your mileage could certainly vary, but I really dig Kristy.