Ever have that feeling the box art has lied to you? It’s as though one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or something. But that doesn’t explain why this flick is actually labeled horror. I shake my tiny fist at the universe.

So the Girl Who Got Away does feature a serial killer, but mostly in concept. It’s about a girl who escaped a killer years before. She’s now living her adult life in the same small town when a prison transport crashes and that same serial killer escapes.

This is a drama… a mystery… and a little bit of a thriller. But calling it horror is a stretch. Just look at that box art though… lies! LIES I tell ya.

But does that make the movie bad? Can I judge it for what it is and not what it isn’t? Sure… why not? This movie is alright bordering on good. There’s actually a fair amount to recommend it if it wasn’t so slow and meandering. It often feels like it needs to get to the point of being a thriller (or a horror) and instead it just lurks about being dramatic and important.

The protagonist just wants to live her life. She’s trying to adopt a troubled teen in order to give back. She has dealing with a police office trying to protect her, a retired police officer who arrested the killer years before, her adoption agent, and the family that fostered her as a teenager. It’s fairly moody, dramatically shot, sober, and very serious.

And not always all that interesting in the long run. I think the movie is just too long. And then it throws in various curveballs and misdirects so if you’ve started to lose focus due to the pacing, you might get lost. Did I get lost? Surely not. <sigh>.

But there’s still enough good in the flick to make for a pretty hazy recommendation. If you like a twisty little thriller and don’t mind it taking its time, maybe wasting time, you might enjoy it. There’s certainly something here and the mystery can be intriguing.

Score: 70