KillHer joins the celebrated sub-genre of horror films that turns camping into anyone’s worst nightmare. Directed by Robyn August and written by Tom Kiesche this punchy little movie opens on four friends who go on a bachelorette party camping trip only for things to go dead wrong. While clever and gloriously bloody at times, the pic struggles to maintain a consistent level of insanity.

We open on besties Eddie (M.C. Huff) and Jess (Emily Hall) who seem to really get each other. Jess is about to be married to Jagger (Jack Schumacher) and Eddie suggests meeting up with with him on a camping trip to celebrate. Along for the trip are friends Mattie (Jenna Z) and Rae (Nicole Lovince). The four arrive at their rustic campsite and they spot only one other tent in the expansive campgrounds occupied by the gruff loner Mr. Rodgers (Tom Kiesche). With Jagger nowhere to be found, Mattie and Rae decide to take the car for a ride around the campsite to look for the others and immediately get lost. Very Lost. Meanwhile, Eddie placates Jess with excuse after excuse about why Jagger isn’t around while running interference with their possibly dangerous campsite neighbor.

Once we have the groundwork set the fun begins. Flashbacks indicate that a few people on this camping trip aren’t exactly what they seem. While Mattie and Rae are looking for the others, they happen upon a local motel run by HXB (Harrison White) aka Hot Cross Buns who invites them to stay for the night. To say more would be a disservice to the moments that make Killher work. In fact, the first half of the movie is a rather perplexing barrage of expository scenes that threaten to make sense. My patience was tried time and again with a particular character’s behavior and everyone’s reluctance to properly address it. Yes, it facilitated the story but it was an instant red flag that begged not to be noticed.

Kiesche’s script is a morphing puzzle of red herrings and horror homages until all is revealed. The problem is that Killher tries to frontload too much plot with the present timeline and backstory, in hopes of it enhancing a ludicrous third act. This puts the heavy lifting of selling things on director August. Her job was to keep the energy high and interesting without being overt. It doesn’t work out as smoothly as it should. In all fairness, the last third of the film is worth the wait, but sheesh.

Two that I can easily praise are White in his turn as HXB and Kieschefor pulling double duty as writer and turning in a fun performance as the suspicious Mr. Rodgers. These two feel perfectly at home in the world of this story. Eddie (M.C. Huff) and Jess (Emily Hall) offer the types of performances that make you question their direction or your understanding of what they were trying to pull off.

I liked Killher more as it went along, but is that a good thing? When our villain is unveiled and allowed to unleash their particular brand of chaotic evil, that is when I was sold. Good but not great, Killher, offers a klunky but original story of camping gone bad.

6 Out Of 10