Kristy (film)

Plot

The film opens with a hooded figure photographing a young woman's corpse in an empty field, followed by a montage of internet screenshots and video of women being killed in what appears to be ritual murders by a cybercult, and footage of the murders being uploaded on an anonymous underground website, where members are encouraged to "kill Kristy," "Kristy" coming from a Latin name meaning "follower of God."

Meanwhile, college student Justine (Haley Bennett) and her boyfriend, Aaron, spend the afternoon together in her dorm room. It is the week of Thanksgiving, and Justine, who is attending college on scholarship, cannot afford to fly back to her parents' home for the holiday. Her roommate Nicole (Erica Ash), whom she planned to spend the holiday with on campus, leaves last-minute to fly to Aspen, Colorado to see her father, leaving Justine alone in her dormitory. Justine spends her Thanksgiving on campus in solitude, with the security guard Wayne (Mathew St. Patrick) being the only one nearby.

On Thanksgiving night, Justine takes Nicole's car to a convenience store to get a snack. Inside the store, a hooded girl, Violet (Ashley Greene) approaches Justine, complimenting her car and calling her beautiful. At the counter, the girl asks for a student discount on a pair of sunglasses, but has no ID. Justine offers to pay for them for her, and the girl refuses and calls her "Kristy." On the drive home, Justine nearly rear ends a mysterious car that is parked in the middle of the road. In the back window, she sees Violet, who draws the letter "K" on her window. Unnerved, Justine speeds off.

Upon returning to the campus, Justine calls Aaron and informs him of the strange occurrence, and though he offers to come stay the night with her, she tells him not to worry. After falling asleep on a couch in the common room, she hears odd noises coming from the direction of her dorm, and the lights begin to flicker. She passes a collage of photographs from other students, who all have their eyes scratched out. Inside her dorm, Justine finds that someone has accessed her laptop, playing the snuff film of the college student's murder from the beginning of the film. As Justine tries to turn off the film and contact someone for help, she finds that Wi-Fi has been disconnected in her building. While trying to reconnect, her laptop is hacked, and the letter "K" is spammed before it is shut down entirely. Meanwhile, Wayne, who was warned by Justine about the incident with Violet, notices something outside and goes to investigate.

Violet then breaks into Justine's room and confronts her with a boxcutter in hand. On the ground level of the dormitory, Justine witnesses a masked man brutally murder Wayne outside the front door. Another masked man carves the letter "K" with a knife into the wall. The four cult killers assemble, and Violet begins recording Justine, telling her that they will begin hunting her, and that she should "run to God." Justine flees, with the killers in steady pursuit. Inside the school parking garage, she finds the campus police car with a dead security guard inside. The killers quickly catch up to her. She flees to the house of the campus maintenance man, Scott (James Ransone). Scott goes to confront them outside, but is captured and hanged from a swing set in the backyard.

Justine attempts to call 911 from Scott's cellphone, but the gang has hacked into it. They begin sending Justine video clips of herself on the phone and menacing text messages. They follow her to the library, where she escapes onto the roof of the building. On the rooftop, she is confronted by the gang, and jumps from the building, falling through the branches of a tree which help break her fall. She sees Aaron's car arrive on campus; as she attempts to tell him what has happened, one of the men kills him. Justine gets into the car and begins driving as one of the men tries to break the windshield; she crashes the car against a concrete wall, crushing him to death.

She escapes to the gymnasium, where she hides in the swimming pool. As one of the masked men searches for her in the water, she emerges from the pool, and stabs him through the throat with her car keys; the two struggle in the pool and she uses his baseball bat as a garrote to break his neck. Justine then hides in a locker room, where the final masked man follows her. Inside the locker room's storage closet, she finds nails, which she covers the baseball bat in, and uses it to kill him. Justine hears his cell phone beep, and reads a text message from Violet asking if he's "killed Kristy yet." Justine responds yes, and Violet scratches out her face in a photograph and stores it inside her car's glovebox, along with numerous photos of other victims. While accessing the killer's phone, Justine finds the photos of the cult's numerous victims, and their declaration to kill the "Kristys" of the world -- pure, beautiful, and wealthy women who they believe follow God, the antithesis of the Satanic cult. By arriving in Nicole's attractive car and offering to pay for Violet, Justine unwittingly made herself a target. Justine also finds evidence that the cult is operating in locations all over the United States.

In the locker room, Justine uses pool chemicals to create a flammable powder. She then dresses herself in the dead man's mask and jacket, and approaches the car where Violet is, dousing it in the powder. Justine reveals to Violet that she's killed all three men. Violet attempts to lash at her with a box cutter, but Justine ignites the powder, and Violet is engulfed in flames; Justine watches as she is burned alive. She then photographs her corpse with the cell phone, and uploads it to the website, entitled /the fold/. A montage at the end of the film narrated by news footage reveals a series of similar cult murders had occurred in New York City, New York; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and other major cities across the United States, but with Justine's testimony and access to the phone, many of the cult's members have been arrested.

A post-credits scene shows a young woman being attacked by another cult killer outside her home.

Cast

Production

In February 2012, it was announced that Gary Fleder would direct the film, from a screenplay by Tony Jaswinski, hoping to get Emma Watson in the lead role, while, David Kirschner will produce through his David Kirschner Productions. In June 2012, it was revealed that Olly Blackburn will now direct the film, Corey Sienga and Matthew Stein joined as producers and executive producers respectively. In October 2012, Haley Bennett joined the cast of the film. At the American Film Market the film was re-titled Satanic. In November 2012, Ashley Greene and Lucas Till joined the cast of the film. In February 2013, it was re-titled to Random.

Release

In February 2013, Entertainment Weekly released the first image of Ashley Greene in the film. The film was first released in Germany on August 7, 2014. It also screened at the London Film Festival on October 14, 2014. In August 2014, it was revealed the film was being re-edited for a U.S theatrical release. It premiered on Lifetime on October 17, 2015. It was released on Netflix on November 5, 2015.