The Killer Inside Me (2010)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I was enjoying this, how much better it was than a previous attempt to film this book (which I recalled as one of my fave suspense novels). Then I found myself in the middle of a scene of such gorific brutality I was left wondering who, what could have made the tale - or the audience - deserve such a thing.I wondered so much I actually re-read the 244-page book.Ah, what a difference 20-plus years can make. Then I read it straight through, unable to put it down. This time it took over a month."Killer" tells the story of a man who murders to settle an old family score. On the one hand. On the other, he also obviously gets quite a kick out of it. Then he goes on a killing spree trying to cover up the first murders. He kills everyone he loves the most, and tosses a few he hates into the mix as well. Much to the disadvantage of everyone in town, he's the trusted deputy sheriff.I was struck by how little Casey Affleck seemed to inhabit the role of Deputy Lou Ford, but checking the original source, there isn't much there to begin with. Reasons why he kills seem limited to the fact that he's a character in a seedy story with a title to live up to and copies to sell. Reason often falls by the wayside - like the murder victims - as author Jim Thompson keeps his vision of small-town life limited to only the ugliest, darkest elements. In this kind of potboiler vision of life, the writer has to keep the pot stirring to distract you from wondering about things like 'how?' and 'why?', such wonderings having a tendency to make things fall apart.Thompson could clearly put together an intricately-woven crime story, and populate a fictional small town with believable types that instantly resonate. His nihilistic vision seems refreshing at first - hypocrisies are exploded; everything we usually try to push to the back of our minds is front and center. But I get bored with it all pretty quick, and feel kind of cheated; like I'd bought a prism to explore the color spectrum of light, but got stuck with a defective one that only shows the color black.The filmmakers use their considerable skills to put us right in the middle of the scene where Affleck beats Jessica Alba (Joyce Lakeland) to death. I wish such talent and thought could have been applied towards a deeper exploration of the main character driving all this. Vacant as he is, we're on a ride with a driver who's asleep at the wheel.

If this film is marked by nothing else, it's poor quality. Poor acting. No, I don't find Casey's poor excuse for a Texas accent convincing. Nor do I find Kate's or Jessica's performances very convincing, not that it says much. I mean, what do you expect from those two? They're not exactly the type of actresses one would cast in a role which requires authenticity. But that doesn't even scratch the surface regarding how inaccurate the film is in terms of its appearance. Alba doesn't strike me as a convincing Texan during this time period. One may look to the goofs section to see what other errors were made during filming. I know this is a low-budget b-movie but the glaring inaccuracies cannot be overlooked. In terms of a b- movie, TKIM is okay. In terms of a feature film it practically sucks. Too much confusion. Like many other people, I thought the child Lou was in the back of a car with a boy. The shot was so quick and I didn't care to freeze frame it to determine whether it was a girl. I don't recall the film making it clear enough who the chick was who gave Lou lessons in BDSM, lucky devil. I bet every straight guy who watches this film wishes they had childhood experiences like that! I do!! Overall, there's nothing remarkable about TKIM except, perhaps, the excessive violence. I don't object to violence in film but I believe the Joyce beating went on too long and was entirely unrealistic. Even a little pussy like Casey Affleck would knock down a chick with a few punches ... or less. How can Joyce just stand there and get clobbered? It's unreal. The actors and director took no care to make the scene look realistic, but instead let it drag on too long, eventually showing Joyce's grotesquely disfigured face. I didn't like the book either. It's not that it's a terrible story per se, but the book is the textual equivalent of a b-movie. It's terribly written. Some have referred to the book and movie as "noir" but they lack any of the elements we would expect to see in noir, except, perhaps, the time period, and Lou Ford's deep cynicism.

Just viewed on DVD. Appalling violent junk. This is not film noir, this is film "in your face" because the director has no idea what he is doing. The exact same storyline by an experienced director would have the same impact without the unsubtle graphic scenes. In the first murder the fake killer would have some marks on his fist to show that he hit victim. This is conveniently overlooked in the script. A better director/scriptwriter would of written her killing in a way that would have been creditable for the fake killer to have done the killing.Remember the killing in the shower in Psycho? An expert did that with not a frame of film wasted. Here we hang on ever shot of a bloodied face with the subtly of a sledge hammer. This film is total junk.

This is a completely misogynistic film; it involves countless acts of violence against women. On top of that, it condones domestic abuse because the female characters are shown liking that abuse."Art" and "freedom of speech" cannot be used as excuses to celebrate messages of hatred. It's not 'just a movie'; media has an affect on individuals and society as a whole. To depict acts of violence without outright condemning the abuse is completely irresponsible writing and directing.I've seen a lot of sexist and misogynistic films but this one is on top of the pile.