Directed by Mark Hartley
Starring Ella Newton, Radha Mitchell, Vince Colosimo

Murder mysteries only work when you can fully immerse yourself in the story, and unfortunately between sub-plots of mental health, detours of distrust, and motifs in flashbacks, Girl at the Window lost me about halfway through.

While certainly living up to its thriller label, this one spends too much time working towards a payoff that doesn’t really land. Frustration sets in which leads to fatigue, and when these two mix that’s when plot holes really impact the effectiveness of any narrative.

As Newton attempts to crack the mystery of the murderer at large, classmates and adults around her seem two steps beyond incompetent in their quest for the killer. Is it still entertaining? I would certainly say the performances are beyond competent, even bordering on compelling, but fixation on sex and murder harkens back to ‘90’s slasher films in a way that simply doesn’t connect the same. Namely because all of the sex taking place in Girl at the Window involves school children, starkly more risqué than boozed up college sophomores. Regardless, another similarity between these two is the gore. Oh boy is there gore…

I’m not typically turned off gore, but I do respect a justified, if not restrained, use of it. The camp of slashers justified its absurdity, levelling the threat of the serial killer chasing them through the forest, but in Girl at the Window it added nothing more than a moment of solemn appreciation for skilled makeup artists striving for realism and oftentimes succeeding. Too bad the odd tone of the film didn’t really jive with these shock value moments.

To juggle shock value and suspenseful thriller is a difficult combination, one requires your imagination working overtime to compensate for the tedious build-up and lack of clarity, while the other attacks your gut, making you squeamish instantaneously with zero warning. They can work together, don’t get me wrong, but Girl at the Window works best when Newton’s paranoia distorts her perspective and therefore our reality as she drives the narrative.

While a fine thriller in short bursts, even at a brisk 84 minutes, Girl at the Window feels bloated as the tone drifts between suspense, slasher, horror, and odd doses of humour. While not all of what I laughed at was intentionally crafted as comedy a couple of them were, and in a movie with more misses than hits I won’t take that away from them.

Girl at the Window is showing in selected cinemas across Australia from August 18th.

Moviedoc thanks Kismet for the invite to the screening of this film.

Reviewed by Zak Wheeler for Moviedoc

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