Things Are Getting Stranger – Final Girl – The Falconwood Files Review

I’m actually surprised that it took the Final Girl franchise until Series 3 to do a film based on Stranger Things.

However, when they decide to do so, they go whole hog and throw in everything but the kitchen sink.

Did you think there was so much going on in that series that there was no way Final Girl could include it all?

Ye of little faith.

The Falconwood Files was designed by Mike Martins with artwork by Vincent Dutrait. It is part of Series 3 and was published in 2025.

(Need I remind you that you can click on a picture to blow it up? I didn’t think so)

I have to say that Dutrait’s artwork in this one is a lot better than in the North Pole one.

The map is actually readable and is really well laid out, though I’ll get to that when I get to the location.

I just wanted to mention that up front, because he is a great artist, but North Pole Nightmare was just really hard to navigate.

The Falconwood Files totally references Stranger Things, except of course there’s not a group of 80s kids in it running around getting in the way when they should be home doing homework.

But everything else is in there!

Let’s go with the killer first, as usual.

The Slayer is a mirror dimensional being who kills his victims by bringing them into the Mirror Dimension.

Except you.

He hates you enough that he can attack you even though you’re not in the same dimension.

Sucks to be you.

The setup always adds two new victims, both in the Mirror Dimension.

One goes into your space and the other goes into the nearest exit to the Slayer.

The Slayer’s killer action is to just draw the nearest victim to him into the Mirror Dimension, and then attack anybody in his space.

He doesn’t move unless a Terror card tells him to.

Or the Finale has been reached.

How do you tell a victim is in the Mirror Dimension?

You replace the victim meeple with one of the six provided silver/grey meeples.

For special victims and yourself, there’s a card where you can keep track.

You can only hurt the Slayer if you are also in the Mirror Dimension (unless you are Retaliating against his attack, in which case he’s very briefly in our dimension to damage you and you can wallop him).

You also can’t lead victims in the Mirror Dimension while you are in our dimension, and vice versa.

How do you enter the Mirror Dimension?

With a brand new action card.

Opening a Rift typically won’t cost you time, unless you don’t roll well.

I love that special victims can follow you into the Mirror Dimension, considering how many of them give you a bonus if they are with you.

You can’t rescue victims in the MD (I’m going to shorten it Mirror Dimension, ok?). You have to bring them out into the real world, which can make things harder.

The good thing is that you can enter our own dimension at any time. You don’t need a card for it.

Which is good, because every Upkeep Phase that you are in the MD, you lose a health.

Another good thing about the Slayer and the MD is that he will only kill and target victims who are in the MD. So he will totally ignore real world victims.

Of course, since his killer action is to draw the nearest victim into the MD, it’s not like he’ll have far to go.

Let’s look at his Dark Powers now, which all will make your life really difficult.

Mind Control will just make sure he gets victims to kill with his killer action, moving each victim in the MD one space towards him each Upkeep phase.

Renewed Determination will make the Finale card harder, since he will move one space towards you or the nearest victim after doing the “draw victim into MD action”.

Master Plan just sucks if there are a lot of victims in the MD, though hopefully by this point they’re all either dead or rescued.

Speaking of finales, what do they look like?

There is one (Interdimensional Rift Collapse) that will actually bring the Slayer out into our world!

But at the cost of killing every victim in the MD (and damaging you if you were already in there).

At least you don’t need to cycle through Open Rift cards to attack him.

But he attacks twice on his turn after moving!

Welcome to My World is just brutal because every victim gets sucked into the MD (there are only six MD meeples, so if more than six victims are left, some are dying, because the extra ones die).

Not only that, but it has the killer action that draws a victim into the MD! Meaning pulling some of them out won’t necessarily help much.

And Horror goes up each turn too. Ouch.

The Terror cards are how the Slayer moves, and also they can start bringing even more victims into the hellishness.

The Minor Dark Powers (there are three!) can make your life miserable, though they’re not as bad as some killers’ cards.

These can actually be mitigated fairly easily, if you’re not too unlucky.

Increasing his attack value by 1 isn’t too bad, since hopefully your Retaliate/Guard will be negating all damage anyway.

Interdimensional Interference isn’t too bad if you don’t stay in the MD (or don’t lose a heart trying to open a rift, which thankfully never happened to me).

Interdimensional Focus just resolves the “into the MD with you!” killer action on the Finale twice, which can make things more difficult.

If the Interdimensional Rift Collapse finale is out, then this one doesn’t do anything and is just annoying because it gives the Slayer two more health.

Horror mitigation can be a thing with the Slayer, so having multiple Terror cards increase Horror is not a good thing.

I got burned twice by It Can Detect Blood, but thankfully he wasn’t doing enough damage to kill me.

It’s always good to have a Retaliate or Guard card handy when facing the Slayer, for times like this.

All of these can darken your day.

I really enjoyed the Slayer, though I did find him a bit easy.

I think (though haven’t tried!) he’d be even easier if you didn’t have to jump through the Falconwood hoops (detailed below) before killing him.

However, maybe I just got lucky?

Either way, transitioning into and out of the MD, and how to deal with victims in each state, can be a little fiddly.

That’s true also of remembering the Killer rules for how he targets and kills.

But it’s not too bad (especially if you’re used to other Series 3 killers, who are worse) and he’s enjoyable to play against.

Let’s see if I’m saying that when I finally lose to him.

How is Falconwood?

It’s a small town stuck in the 80s (though the 80s obviously doesn’t come through, but just go with it) with a secret government lab out in the forest and lots of stuff to do.

That’s because there is a small snag in your plan to just rescue victims and try to take out the killer.

There are six different available “missions” in Falconwood, and one is chosen randomly at the start of the game.

You have to complete the mission before you can reveal the killer’s final health token!

These missions can be anything from rescuing your father from the evil government forces, to having government agents actively hunting you (you have to kill all four of them to succeed), to cracking the code that you hear in various radio transmissions, and even more!

Once you complete the mission, not only can you then defeat the killer, but you will immediately gain a special friend along with some other special benefits.

The Adopted Father will be great for you when you’re attacking the bad guy, though you have to make sure he doesn’t get killed, or at least not around you.

The Jockette will help you move around, and also give you multiple places to cross the river.

That’s because normally you can only cross the river on the major bridges, not the blue lines.

The Jockette, along with a couple of different items, will let you cross at the blue lines as well, though you can only take one victim with you instead of two (except with the Jockette, who gives you that extra follower benefit).

The requirement to complete the mission first means that you will be devoting a lot of time to that and not necessarily much to dealing with the killer (though you can injure him, you just can’t kill him yet).

Thus, you will likely be getting to the killer’s finale before dealing with that.

The missions aren’t super-taxing, just time consuming.

That’s the main conceit of Falconwood, the missions which all bring Stranger Things vibes.

Along with those vibes, how about an AK-47 to take out those government agents with?

I’m sure David Harbor is in here somewhere.

There are some really cool weapons in Falconwood.

In fact, all of these weapons are present in the show in some capacity.

Which is amazing.

Of course, those familiar with at least one other earlier film are very familiar with the flamethrower.

I never got a chance to use it this time, but it’s a killer!

There are some other cool weapons too.

I think Falconwood has one of the highest number of weapons available from any of the films I’ve seen, though I may be misremembering.

It’s funny (yet kind of sad) that the three search areas where you can get this stuff are the secret government lab, the police station, and…the school.

I guess being able to find an AK-47 at a school is a sign of the times.

Or a sign that you don’t want to live in this town, one of the two.

There are, of course, other non-lethal but helpful items in Falconwood.

The Pool Noodle will let you cross the river at crossings and not just the bridge.

How waffles either remove Horror or heal you two health, I have no idea.

There’s no chicken with them!

(We’ll see if any of my game group actually reads this post)

The Dragon’s Breath is amazing, though. Three damage to an adjacent enemy or one in your space?

Yes, please!

The events are quite varied, though there are only two special victim events (the orange one is always going to be your mission prize).

I never had the pleasure of meeting the Conspiracy Theorist, but it’s good to have him around as long as you have other victims to weed through as well.

There’s even an achievement for having the Conspiracy Theorist actually defeat the killer.

The Head Researcher is pretty terrible, actually. Not only killing victims at the Government Lab but also attracting his next victim as well.

Usually, the special victims that actually hurt you either won’t be an issue if they’re killed or will actually benefit you if they’re killed.

Not this one!

Two bloodlust gain when he dies is terrible!

Leading him away from the lab doesn’t help either, because the death and attraction is tied to the lab, not him specifically.

So get him saved as quickly as possible.

Other events are also a mix of good and bad.

Grand Opening gives you a new river crossing!

Bridge Repair takes one away.

The Pizza Delivery van is so amazing (and is also straight out of Stranger Things).

Getting two additional movements, even with the first one being panicked, will really let you zoom around the board.

And you get to lead an additional victim!

I also got lucky with it.

There were a number of times where my panic roll didn’t actually result in movement (and I realize I may have messed this up, because that still burns a movement point and I don’t think I played it that way), so I didn’t go off in some weird direction.

There is also an event card, which I drew in two of my games, that lets you advance a mission without actually doing anything.

Sweet!

Let’s look at some of the Terror cards for this location.

They can actually be quite fun.

You are definitely getting events!

More victims as well.

And perhaps losing progress on a mission too.

That sucks.

Then let’s go for the really bad ones.

Lots of fast movement and then attacking, or just going after multiple victims.

And then the possibility that you get attacked three times.

Yikes!

And yet another Stranger Things reference, with Run! Up that Hill!

Overall, I have to say that Falconwood is a ton of fun.

The missions can get really fiddly and distracting, but once I was done with it, I realized that it wasn’t that bad.

It does make it so you have to divide your attention, as you are still trying to rescue victims and if you’re facing the Slayer, you need to drag some of them out of the MD.

But the map is cool, requiring weird paths to get some places (especially if you have a bridge out), the search locations aren’t that hard to get to, and the artwork really fits it.

I’ve played three of the six missions now, so I’m looking forward to playing the other three.

It will also be interesting to see how those missions work with a different killer, who is much more relentless than the Slayer.

Finally, let’s get to the Final Girls.

They both only require four victims to be saved to reach their ultimate abilities, which may be because of how it’s hard to save victims when you’re also trying to deal with a mission?

I’m not sure, but their save bonuses are pretty standard.

Octavia having two “move one space” rewards is quite nice.

Their ultimate abilities, however, are amazing, and may be a big part of the reason why the Slayer seemed easier than he should be.

For both of them, whenever you fail a horror roll or rescue another victim, you move the marker a space up to the maximum.

Octavia’s ability is purely defensive, but it can be a life saver.

When you take damage, you can spend the token to reduce it by the number it’s on.

Janelle is even better, though, because it’s purely offensive.

She does additional damage equal to where the marker is to one attack (then it resets).

If you’ve got that up to +5 and do a Critical Blow with a weapon, that’s upwards of 9-10 damage!

How do you not win with that?

Taken as a whole, The Falconwood Files is a fantastic feature film in the Final Girl series.

The two final girls are wonderful, Falconwood is a great (if very fiddly) location and the Slayer has the interesting Mirror Dimension mechanic (see, Mom? I didn’t abbreviate it this time!).

I want to try the Slayer against a more conventional Final Girl and see if there’s any difference. Either blocking or inflicting that much damage can be crushing, though blocking it only happens once.

You’re susceptible after that.

It’s not the most straightforward film, so keep that in mind if you are looking for something a bit simpler in mechanics.

It’s intricate enough though that it’s quite satisfying.

It’s probably better than Season 5!

(Note: I haven’t watched Season 5 yet)

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