Grandma’s Getting a Little Hairier – Final Girl – Once Upon a Full Moon Review

You all know the story.

Little girl goes to visit Grandma, who for some strange reason lives alone in the woods.

Is she the Unabomber? Is she posting manifestos on Facebook?

Anyway, little girl arrives at Grandma’s house and lo and behold, Grandma forgot to shave that day!

And her teeth have grown a little bit.

Either that, or maybe something really terrible has happened to her.

Oh no, it’s a wolf!

For once, Final Girl goes to the old fairy tale book instead of the horror movie for another installment of the wonderful solo game franchise.

Not only that, Red (or whichever Final Girl you are using) came to Grandma’s house loaded for bear, ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum.

(Whoops, wrong franchise).

Maybe she really was the Unabomber and you’re her faithful revolutionary relative?

Whatever.

Once Upon a Full Moon (which makes it sound like it’s a werewolf? But it’s not, really) once again brings a new location (Storybook Woods) and a new killer (The Big Bad Wolf) to the game, ready to make you wonder why you torture yourself like this because you can’t win to save your life.

That could just be me, though, because I’m terrible at this.

This particular feature film was designed by Julie Ahern (Yay, Julie!) with artwork by Tyler Johnson.

It’s part of Series 2 and was published by Van Ryder Games in 2023.

I love how the various feature films do mix things up a bit in their mechanics, which the Wolf does with the Track and Slay mode, and Storybook Woods does by having a river and many fewer locations than other films have.

So let’s start examining this one with the Wolf!

The Big Bad Wolf is spending the first few turns hunting through the woods for prey.

His Killer action is to run around, finding victims, but not actually killing them.

Maybe he’s nuzzling them instead?

No! Of course not.

The killing is what the Terror cards are for.

You’ll notice that it shows both a move and a kill icon there, but with a target and skull as well.

With the Wolf in Track mode (the target symbol), he’ll just go to the victims.

However, his Dark Power is activated after only two bloodlust increases!

And the Dark Powers all have one thing in common (other than being nasty, which they all are): they put the Wolf into Slay mode.

In Slay mode, the Killer action is to kill and not move, which can actually be helpful if the Terror cards aren’t making him move.

He can’t kill when there’s nothing there!

However, the Dark Powers are all pretty gruesome.

I had Sixth Sense twice in my playthroughs. Not being able to do damage with Retaliate really makes this one a lot harder.

You can go into his space and start trying to whale on him with attacks, but you can’t count on your reaction to do any damage.

They do still work to prevent him damaging you, though.

Destructive Roar getting rid of items is pretty nasty too, though a lot of the time I can’t get to the search locations to find that much stuff anyway, so it’s not quite as bad.

Ravenous Hunger is just a kick in the ass, and hopefully your victims haven’t been congregating.

That’s the other thing about the Wolf: he’s incredibly fast once bloodlust starts building up.

In the Storybook Woods, that’s not a good thing!

I mean, it’s not that great anywhere, but at least most other locations have more spaces to move to.

The Finales aren’t too bad, though.

Ok, I’m lying.

They are incredibly difficult too!

Rampant Growth will make you lose dice quick unless you Focus or find some other way to decrease Horror.

Thrill of the Hunt just has the wolf healing and healing, because he’s walking twice while attacking in the middle, and he heals each time he moves!

Tasty Treats only has a one-time effect, and if you haven’t been able to damage him, then it won’t matter.

But attacking twice in the Killer phase is just terrible, when you only have three reaction cards to choose from.

You can’t stay in his space to keep attacking, because there aren’t enough to protect you.

You have to move as well, but then he’ll follow you and attack twice!

Hopefully you have a nice trash can lid or something.

The Terror cards are where he does the main business of compensating for what mode he’s in.

Some are split depending on what mode he’s in.

So On the Hunt will have him move again in Track mode, and then increase bloodlust as if he had killed a victim.

But in Slay mode, he moves twice and then attacks!

The same with It Snarled With Red Glowing Eyes, which also increases Horror.

That’s another thing about the Wolf: it will be incredibly hard to keep Horror to the point where you can use three dice.

Between Terror cards that increase Horror and the number of Horror increases on his bloodlust track (including one double increase!), you’ll be working hard to be rolling two dice, much less three.

Other Terror cards are pretty bad too, and help him move (or move victims towards him).

Come Closer, My Pretty is just terrible, with three attacks after you and all of the victims move one space closer to him.

Hopefully nobody’s adjacent to him, so they don’t actually move into his space.

Others work toward increasing that bloodlust, unlocking the Dark Power and enabling Slay mode, even without killing anybody.

There are three Minor Dark Powers, and yeah…they’re terrible too.

But at least the Wolf didn’t move or attack that turn!

Losing a heart when you move into or begin a turn in the Wolf’s space will make it really hard for the epic final battle.

Also having a reaction card that prevents all damage still cause you one damage is not conducive to surviving!

However, discarding a random action card when entering his space or moving into it will definitely make it hard to attack him.

One time, I had my Furious Strike discarded just as I was about to do some major damage to him.

Some have described the Big Bad Wolf as one of the easier killers, while others say he’s one of the hardest.

Personally, I found him very difficult, though I did manage to kill him once.

The Track/Slay mechanic is really interesting, though, and I like how his Terror cards are built around compensating for the lack of attack (or move, if he goes into Slay mode) in his Killer action.

It is nice when he’s in Slay mode when you have him just sit in a space for a couple of turns, because the Terror card didn’t make him move.

That does make him a bit luck-dependent, though not as much as the Poltergeist.

I like this one!

How about Storybook Woods?

It has a few really interesting mechanics with some of the events and the river, which makes maneuvering a bit harder.

Especially with victims!

That’s because all of those river crossings on the map can only hold one victim that you’re escorting.

Which is fine if you’re on the other side of the river, but near Grandma’s House?

Herding victims to the exits is not efficient.

Some of the events can make that even harder.

Toll Bridge helps by putting a new bridge out!

However, it costs you extra time to move across (because you know Time is the currency in this game), and even more so if you have a victim.

It’s a Passenger Tax!

Furry Friends is just really annoying.

Stupid animals, making it harder to help them.

Another way for bloodlust to go up without any victims dying.

However, one of the most interesting events in this one is Fairy Ring.

Especially when you happened to somehow get a bunch of victims in the Glen.

This can either be bad for you (if you are good at saving victims) or incredibly helpful for you (if you aren’t able to save many victims and you want victims off the board so they can’t be killed).

Only one Event card actually adds multiple new victims, but there are also some other cool ones as well.

The Harmless Old Woman is pretty interesting too.

There are three events that add special victims, and one of them is very helpful if you can coordinate properly.

The Woodsman can really help you when attacking the Wolf (or anybody else). He adds one die to each attack you do for each 3 health that the killer has.

What a great way to get 3+ dice!

Of course, if he dies while you’re in his space, you lose 3 time.

But saving him once he’s helped you will double your save bonus.

That’s very cool.

Hansel is also very helpful, giving you an additional move and also a free Item at the Gingerbread House!

He must have really wanted that candy.

Adding two bloodlust if he dies isn’t good, though.

The Terror cards are interesting too, with four of the eight giving you an Event.

All the better to annoy you with, my pretty!

But Have Some Sweets can actually help you if it comes out when you’re on a search location.

That’s awesome!

Two of these add new victims, so it’s not just the Event cards at this location.

Others bring more joy, as they’re not too horrible overall (except the killer moving and attacking, of course).

There’s Something in the Trees is yet another way to increase bloodlust without killing anything, and really gets the killer moving.

But Getting Treats For Grandmother actually gets you an Item!

At the expense of the killer coming after you, so I hope you’re ready for him.

Overall, the Terror cards could be a lot worse, thought they are not a walk in the park.

How about those Item cards?

Storybook Woods has some really interesting ones, actually.

The Rafts will help you move along and across the river, which can come in really handy (though it could take a lot of time, as even moving between two adjacent ones costs you two time plus the time on the Movement card itself).

Flowers can be very helpful for controlling Horror, which is imperative with the Wolf.

Thorny Vines is a really interesting one because you can place the vines in the path of the killer and do two damage to him! Plus ending his phase, which is nice, especially if it’s when doing the Killer action and not a Terror card.

Chicken Bones are just a way to pick away at the killer’s health, but you do get three of them.

There aren’t many weapons in the woods (there are the basic ones that appear to be in every location, so I didn’t include pictures of them), but they are all really interesting.

The Slingshot can do two damage twice, and you can also remove a Search card from the game to replenish its ammo.

Potentially getting you six shots!

The Hatchet can be thrown from one space away. If you do, place it in the space you threw it at and you can use a Search card to pick it back up.

The Pitchfork is another way to prevent damage, but only once as you have to discard it.

Then there are the really interesting ones.

Songbirds can be sent to attack the killer within two spaces of you and they do 3 points of damage!

Sign me up!

Then the Cage, you can discard it to bring the Songbirds back (or into play if they weren’t actually in play).

Bread gets you time or movement, as does Candy (though you have to make a horror roll for Candy).

Candy also can get you time or health.

And then there’s the Basket, which can get you one of these non-weapons that are oh so good.

What a great bunch of items!

They can make the difference in this game.

There are, as usual, five setup cards in the game, and they give you a wide variety of victim distribution and starting locations for yourself and the killer.

The Breadcrumb trail was my setup card when the opening event was the Fairy Ring (that’s where the picture far above came from), removing 5 victims almost immediately.

Scatter can be interesting because you can only carry one victim over a bridge anyway, and a bunch of them are on the escape side of the river, so that’s not bad.

Though the killer starts in one of the exit areas, so that’s not good.

All in all, I really liked the mechanics in Storybook Woods, and the item cards are amazing!

The events are too terrible, though some are better than others.

And sadly the one time I got the Woodsman event, he died before I could use him, which would have been very helpful.

This is definitely a great location, and I didn’t even mind how compact it is.

That might change depending on the killer, though.

The fewer number of locations matched up nicely with the number of times the Wolf didn’t move (though when he did move, he moved from one end of the board to the other!).

I definitely want to try this one with some different killers to see what happens.

Finally, let’s talk about the two new Final Girls in this one.

Red will also get you an item, which in Storybook Woods is an amazing effect.

She can also move, get some time, and heal, along with getting a 2-time or less action card.

All very useful!

Gretel can reduce Horror, which is amazing!

She can also move, get a Long Rest (which can be very helpful), get time or heal one. She also only needs to save 5 victims to get her Ultimate going.

Which is wonderful!

Converting a miss to a hit by discarding 3 action cards is…well, it is situationally helpful.

Sometimes you need those action cards, and discarding two is bad enough!

However, saving additional victims decreases Horror, which is really great.

However, Red’s is really awesome, because she gets a free move if an enemy is close to her. Makes it easier to run away, or even move in for the kill.

All in all, this is a great feature film that I really enjoyed.

It has a location that I like and don’t even mind the film’s killer in (I’m looking at you, Creech Manor), but yet I also can’t wait to try it with other killers.

The Wolf is an interesting killer, though swingy. He can be either really easy or really hard, or possibly just “meh.”

I love the Track and Slay mechanic, though.

The two Final Girls are interesting, though not my favourite. It will be interesting (and cold!) to try Red in a location like Station 2891 or something, where movement can be even more helpful.

Or Creech Manor, with all of those terrible paths between rooms!

This is a solid feature film and another winner in the Final Girl franchise.

(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