RIP (Revenge in Peace) – Final Girl – Slaughter in the Groves Review

One of the big horror movie tropes over the last 50 years (going back to Poltergeist, which was the first horror movie I saw, even if it was only PG-13) is the “oh my god, we’re building on/visiting/desecrating some religious space/burial ground/whatever” reason for why everybody is suddenly getting horrified and killed by ungodly creatures (or ghosts).

Wow, that was convoluted. Sorry about that.

Anyway, having done many other horror movie tropes, Final Girl now gives us an example of that with Slaughter in the Groves, a feature film that includes religious spaces and angry deities who don’t like normal people desecrating those spaces.

I have to say before starting that this has to be the hardest feature film yet that I’ve played in the Final Girl franchise.

But there are ways to mitigate that, which I will get into.

This feature film was designed by Evan Derrick with art by Tumo Mere. It was published by Van Ryder Games in 2021.

The main reason for how brutal this film is (compared to the ones I’ve done before, so take that for what it is) is that the two main mechanisms the location and killer introduce, combined they just make it really, really difficult to succeed.

Then again, I managed to do some damage to the killer, so maybe I just need to get luckier?

Let’s take a look at what we have here.

The killer is Inkanyamba, a vengeful spirit who acts on behalf of the African gods, who starts killing all of the tourists who are coming to visit these sacred groves, and probably defiling them because they’re probably Americans.

As a killer by himself, he’s not that bad, though the bloodlust getting up high can make him move around the board very easily.

Look at that bloodlust track: other than revealing his Dark Power, nothing happens other than him becoming more powerful and fast!

What Inkanyamba has, however, is the new Killer Wrath mechanic.

Various of his Terror cards (as well as his Killer action, while the Wrath is at 1 or 2) will either increase his Killer Wrath (the card at the bottom left in the above picture) or, worse, unleash it at whatever level it’s currently at.

Unleashing it means that you execute the effect from whatever level it is at.

So level 5 will increase Horror by 2.

At level 6 and above, he’ll start coming after you (or the victims).

And unlike many games of this kind, unleashing it doesn’t set it back to zero!

It stays where it is until you atone.

That’s right, Inkanyamba has a new Action card that you can purchase, Atonement.

This card costs 2 Time, so you will be spending Time for a card other than what you would normally want.

But as the Wrath track goes higher, you’re going to need Atonement.

Successful atonement will bring the Wrath track down and maybe make it more manageable.

The yellow lightning symbol, I’ll get to in a moment.

Of course, failure to atone properly (i.e. failing the Horror roll) will cost you time and Horror.

That’s not good.

Inkanyamba’s Terror cards are equally deadly, because while his killer action doesn’t make him move to kill (he just kills what’s in his space), they often do really nasty things.

A lot of times, they’ll increase or unleash (sometimes both!) Killer Wrath, which is always bad news.

Then he’ll go in search of a victim.

Also not good!

Other Terror cards will have him go hunting, either for a victim or the Final Girl, and then also possibly increase Wrath.

Surprisingly, though, there are at least a couple of Terror cards that could be beneficial…as long as you roll well.

You’d better roll well.

His Minor Dark Powers aren’t anything to sneeze at, though they’re not too annoying considering what they could be like.

How about his regular Dark Powers?

Nasty, as they should be.

It doesn’t really matter which one you get, because they’re all bad.

Rising Dread will make Horror escalate considering how often Killer Wrath increases.

Feast of Anger makes him recover health when Wrath increases, though often it’s increasing while you haven’t touched him, so it’s not that bad.

I haven’t graduated to the Epic Dark Power of any of these killers, so I don’t know how bad this one makes the game, but I’m sure it’s pretty bad!

The Finales are just as bad.

As I mentioned above, his basic Killer Action is to knife whoever he’s in a space with.

Usually you can mitigate that.

However, once the Finale is flipped…

it gets even more brutal!

First, he will always unleash his Killer Wrath, so you’d better be atoning.

Secondly, he will always go after you and/or a victim and then knife you, either once or twice.

By this time, he’s probably moving freely across the location board.

We Need a Miracle at least lets you take action cards when he maxes Killer Wrath, which he is going to do unless you’re doing lots of atoning.

Inkanyamba is just a seriously tough customer. You have to be using the Atonement action card a lot, which means that you are neglecting to get another 2-Time cost card instead (either Guard, or Search or maybe Sprint).

I have managed to do some damage to him while playing this feature film in order to review it, so it must be possible to kill him.

What makes that more difficult is when you combine him with the Sacred Groves location that comes in this feature film.

The Sacred Groves is a location that has three sacred spots on it (those outlined in red), and the victims inevitably go there, either through panicking or through a Terror card.

The Sacred Groves has the Divine Wrath mechanic, which combined with the Killer Wrath from Inkanyamba makes combining these two extremely difficult.

For one, when you atone, you have to decide which track you want to go down.

And both of them are bad!

(Incidentally, this is the first location I’ve encountered that requires you to use cards or items from outside of it. In this case, if you use the Sacred Groves location with another killer, you have to use the Atonement cards that came with Inkanyamba).

There is also an addition to the Bloodlust track for the Sacred Groves which will unleash this (or increase it), making things even more difficult.

Combining this with the killer wrath?

I don’t know how you survive it, though at least the Bloodlust track doesn’t do much with Inkanyamba other than make him stronger and faster.

As you can see (and many of the Terror cards continue it), often the Divine Wrath is increased by how many victims are in the various sacred groves.

And there are usually a lot.

It just seems to work out that way!

It’s even worse when one of the events is working against you.

Counting double is just torture!

Especially when they start congregating there.

Inkanyamba is terrible. The Sacred Groves are terrible.

Combine them?

Can you win this thing?

There are some items that can be of great help, including one that I was able to get in all three of my games.

The Aluminum Bat will get rid of a Minor Dark Power and also does an extra damage to whatever damage you do.

In two of my games, Inkanyamba had both of his Minor Dark Powers out.

I managed to hit him with the bat, doing enough damage to get rid of one Minor Dark Power while using the bat’s effect to get rid of the other one.

It’s very efficient.

The Whip is also handy, forcing the killer to move back one space when you hit him.

Is that good or bad?

Usually he (whoever the killer is) will move then kill, though until the Finale comes out it’s often just “kill in his own space” so that can be helpful.

The War Club is even better, allowing you to lower one of the Wraths by the amount of damage you do.

Two birds with one stone!

Other items that are useful are the Pepper Spray (if the Killer enters your space, discard the Pepper Spray to immediately end the Killer’s turn).

The Tribal Mask is the War Club on defense, reducing Wrath by the amount of damage done to you.

The Prayer Book is awesome! It gives you an automatic one success on Atonement rolls, and gives you the chance of a 3-star Atonement even without having Horror at an all-time low.

You can’t say that they haven’t given you items to help mitigate things.

But do you have time to do that many Searches when you need to keep atoning?

Who knows?

The Events can be both good and bad, as is usual.

Some just make things more difficult.

The Gods Hate Failure just makes failing Horror rolls even more annoying.

Loud and Obnoxious makes Divine Wrath even worse.

However, some are beneficial, like Hallowed Ground letting you gain time by ending your movement in a Sacred Grove space.

Other event cards bring out new victims or make the spaces do even weirder things.

Unholy Bloodshed makes you really want to avoid having victims killed in a sacred space.

The new special victims are just annoying, though the Tour Guide can be helpful as long as you keep him alive.

Taken together, though, it’s all bad!

Then we get to the Terror cards.

Unleash Terror!

These are just monstrous.

Fury of the Gods – an Event, increase Divine Wrath by a whole bunch, unleash it, then increase it again?

Is there enough Atoning for this?

Tourist Trap is just going to amp up Divine Wrath, but at least it doesn’t unleash it.

Rage of the Gods, the killer’s going to do something!

Either two victims die (most likely) or you get attacked twice.

Neither is good unless you have both a Guard and a Retaliate (and if you do, are you atoning enough? I don’t think so!)

Other Terror cards either greatly amp up the Divine Wrath, or maybe (if you’re lucky) decrease it.

But only by 1, because the Gods will not favour you too much.

Also don’t forget that using the Sacred Groves actually gives you a new Killer action when you’ve revealed the Finale.

I forgot to use it in my first game and won handily! I then realized what I had done, went back through how the game had gone after the finale was revealed, and realized that I lost big.

All in all, combined together, the Slaughter in the Groves feature film is just brutal and I’m not sure how fun it is.

That being said, separating them, by either having a different killer in the Groves (though thematically that’s kind of weird) or Inkanyamba in some other location (also thematically weird, but whatever) may be manageable with enough atonement.

You don’t have two Wrath tracks going up at the same time.

The mechanics in this set are really interesting, and thematically they go together really well.

The Wrath track is wonderful (though two Wrath tracks? ummmm no) and I like that this set provides you with different things you have to worry about.

I’d highly recommend the set, but maybe not together?

Anyway, let’s take a look at the two Final Girls, because they are also quite interesting.

Both of them only require 5 victims to be saved before flipping them, which is nice considering how difficult this combination is.

Barbara is especially cool if you have a nice weapon face up on one of the Item piles.

No need to go searching!

Not as useful if nothing good is there, though.

Reducing Horror once, healing a health, and gaining two Time (not to mention moving a space) is good too.

Adelaide, though, gets you Time twice, reduces Horror twice, and lets you move a space.

Those can be huge!

Especially the movement for both of them, considering you have to get the victims to an exit as soon as possible.

Moving a space after rescuing can help you move on to your next task.

The flipped versions are pretty good too.

Adelaide’s instant effect is really wonderful, giving you lots of options depending on your situation at the time.

However, Barbara is really interesting.

Victims will move into the Killer’s space with you, and you can sacrifice them (safely, i.e. no Bloodlust increase) to do more damage?

Wow!

Of course, by the time you flip her cards, there may not be many victims left, but that’s ok.

I can see bits and pieces of Slaughter in the Groves being very cool to play around with.

I’m not sure having them all together is that good, though.

I love Final Girl, but I have to say that this particular feature film is probably my least favourite of the six I’ve played so far.

That may change when I put Inkanyamba in Maple Lane, or put Hans in the Sacred Groves.

But for now, if you can find another feature film, I would take it.

Try this one if you want to have the complete Final Girl experience, though.

(This review was written after 3 plays of this film)

Check out all of my Final Girl reviews here! More will be coming.

Final Girl Reviews