What do you do when you’re not the final girl or the survivor girl or even the opening kill? What do you do when you’re the attractive one or the best friend who dies just before the climax of the movie? This pivitol role is highlighted in a gory, surprising and hilarious way in David H. Jeffrey’s short – Girl #2. Set as a classic slasher where an armed, crazed assailant massacres an entire sorority in their own house, Girl #2 follows the remaining survivors as they hide from the killer… and quite literally battle their own insecurities. Katy Yoder, Mia Faith and Michael Bailey Smith star in one of my favorite short films of 2016, directed and produced by David H. Jeffrey with writer Kari Wahlgren.
Girl #2 is genius and inventive in the way it showcases the roles in horror titles that are often overlooked. The script is mind-bending, bringing the thoughts and feelings of thousands of closing kills to the screen in a realistic and funny way. Do characters in all the other scary movies think this way? Besides fright, what are they feeling just before the madman breaks through the door? Is there really this terrific sense of sisterhood or closeness right before the attack? Are the killers ever shocked at what they hear and see before quenching their thirst for gore? Girl #2 is a virtual reality experience without the technology. You see the action on screen, but you can’t help but to feel like it’s happening in real life and you relate to and wonder about the victims.
Even though young women are getting a sledgehammer to the face, they still manage to argue and I realize that, yes, only sorority girls could argue at a time like this. Girl #2 is cattiness and horror at its best and I was here for it. Genre fans are treated to the commonplace location of the pledge house, the cat and mouse games, the planning for survival and other horror stereotypes, all until the young women competing to be the last one to die let their inner feelings come out. Girl #2 is Mean Girls meets Sorority Row, all mixed together with a little bit of old-school “Mad TV.” It’s a combination you’re not going to expect, but one that has a tremendous appeal to it and results in a fantastic short film worthy of much success.
I have my questions about Girl #2, though. Why were the windows boarded up if they were still living there? Why did the intruder pick them out of all others on his list? At first I was going to say I’d love to see it adapted to a feature length title, but now I’m thinking it’s perfect the way it is. Short, simple and too the point; although it isn’t weak on production value and talent. Girl #2 looks like 10 minutes of a multi-million dollar movie and it has incredible actors to back that up. It recently screened at Telluride Film Festival and Freakshow Film Festival and you should add this to your must see list in this circuit. The sky really is the limit for this short from David H. Jeffrey and I’m expecting it to rain awards. Original, mindlessly thought provoking and a splatterfest of epic proportions, Girl #2 will remind you how much you love slashers all while bringing out the bitch in you.
Final Score: 10 out of 10.
