While Amanda Seyfried is famous for playing Karen Smith inMean Girls, and she has starred in many sweet movies likeMama MiaandDear John, the actress has also taken on quite a few dark thrillers and horror films. Seyfried starred inJennifer’s BodyandChloe, which were both released in 2009, and brought her talents to 2020’sThings Heard And SeenandYou Should Have Left.
Amanda Seyfried also played the main character Jill Conway in the 2012 horror movieGone. This movie didn’t get good reviews and has likely been forgotten by horror fans, but there’s something about it that deserves a second look.
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Amanda Seyfried playing Elizabeth HolmesinThe Dropoutis getting a lot of buzz, and Seyfried has starred in so many entertaining and interesting movies. Generally speaking,Gonewasn’t considered a very good movie. With an Audience Score of 42% and a 12% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, critics weren’t impressed, and it’s possible that this movie has gotten lost among the many horror films from the past decade so. But Amanda Seyfried’s performance as Jill is what makes the movie worth watching, and the movie also does a good job with the “is the main character right or imagining things?” trope. This is ahorror and thriller movie tropethat is often used and rarely impressive, but here, it works. Audiences do believe Jill from the start, also thanks to Seyfried’s acting chops, and it’s a wild ride seeing how she puts the pieces together.
When the movie opens, audiences learn that police think that Jill completely made up a story about being kidnapped, held in a hole under the ground, and escaping. Jill has been living a lonely life with her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham), trying to get over the trauma that she has experienced. Jill says that Molly has disappeared and thinks that the same thing has happened to her, but of course, the police don’t think so at all. Although the movie wasn’t well-reviewed and isn’t included on lists of the most inventive or creative horror movies of the past decade, it deserves some credit because it tells a solid, well-crafted story.
Jill looks into what happened to her, learning that a van was outside her house. Jill does the typical horror movie main character thing of playing detective, but instead of this being a lame and cheesy trope that doesn’t add much to the plot, Jill actually finds out some information. Jill learns that a man named “Digger” rented a van, and she finds his name (Jim LaPointe, played by Socratis Otto) and goes to his house, along with some objects that suggest he kidnapped her, as she remembers being given pet food.Gonecan definitely be considered anunderrated PG-13 horror movie. Despite the bad reviews, it’s hard not to be drawn into the film and want to see if Jill can prove everyone wrong and if she can locate her sister and defeat her kidnapper. If a thriller is supposed to offer up clues and a smart ending to the mystery, and a horror movie should have kill scenes/dark memories/moments that feel truly unnerving,Gonesucceeds on those counts.
The reason why the police don’t think that Jill is telling the truth is because after her mom and dad passed away, she was put in a hospital. Usually, the main character being said to be “crazy” is offensive and tough to watch, and it doesn’t feel any better watching it here, which is definitely the movie’s one issue. But it’s possible to look past this because Seyfried is so good as a woman who knows that she has to prove that her story is correct.
Jill has been involved in one of the worst things that someone could go through and the way that other character treats her says a lot about how so many people are often ignored and told that their trauma or experiences aren’t really worth talking about. In this way,Goneis making a statement about how people should be kinder and more compassionate to Jill, but instead, they’re convinced that she’s lying.
When Jill finds her sister Molly and goes to the area where was kidnapped and kills her kidnapper, Jill becomes a perfecthorror movie final girl. Jill does what horror fans want in a protagonist: she’s motivated to get back at the “bad guy” (in this case, she wants to find and save her sister, the only family she has left) and she stays strong even when people don’t believe what she’s saying. Even thoughGoneisn’t a celebrated horror movie, it does deliver a satisfying scary tale.
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