Friday 10 February 2017

I Am Not A Serial Killer - Review

****


Certificate 15



Written by Billy O'Brien & Chris Hyde
Directed by Billy O'Brien


Christopher Lloyd

An impressive tale from Billy O'Brien, filmed on location in the small town Midwest during a bleak midwinter.

Seventeen year old Max Records plays John Wayne Cleaver a diagnosed sociopath who is in therapy and who is struggling with issues around death and mortality. His troubles are only fuelled by the fact that his family's business is as the town's undertakers. At his mother's knee, John Wayne has learnt the intricacies of the cadaver and the chemical complexities of embalming.

A spate of disemboweling murders sparks the young man's morbid curiosity, with his quest to uncover what exactly is happening around him that makes for a finely crafted horror-thriller with just a twist of ironic humour.

There's a supernatural thread here too and it's driven in a stand out turn from veteran Christopher Lloyd as Crowley, an old man with a distinctive if somewhat ghastly secret. Lloyd doesn't so much steal his scenes, as imbue them with an excellence that feeds into his co-performers. His work is as chilling as it is intriguing and as the pieces of the jigsaw slot into place, the denouement (albeit with slightly creaky CGI) is an unexpected delight. 

Robbie Ryan's tight cinematography keeps Minnesota's wintry icy intimacy perfectly claustrophobic, making I Am Not A Serial Killer a bloody treat that is as raw as it is rare.


Available on download, Blu-Ray and DVD from February 20th

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