Customer Reviews

The Killer Inside Me [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

For those who have not seen the movie, please read other reviews for plot synopses and be advised that the violence depicted is so graphic and realistic that no immature person should be allowed to view it. For mature viewers, the plot and dialog are reminiscent of Cormack McCarthy's work (i.e. Child of God) in which the psyche of a deranged, perverted lunatic is presented so dispassionately that you actually develop some (albeit minor) affection for him. It is a significant movie and definitely worth watching.

SPOILER ALERT: My review is for those who have seen the movie and are puzzled or disappointed by portions of it, primarily the ending. For ease of recognition, I will use the actor's names, rather than their character names.

Casey's mother died when he was quite young and he was introduced to sadomasochistic sex by a baby sitter. As a result, he begins molesting girls much younger than himself and is caught in the act by his adopted older brother, who is revolted by his behavior. Subsequently, when knowledge of Casey's crimes become wide spread, his innocent brother, being older, is punished while he is not. When the brother returns (from jail?) he begins working on a construction crew and is killed through the negligence of construction magnate, Ned Beatty. All of this is sublimated within Casey's mind until the nightmare is awakened when prostitute, Jessica Alba, slaps him. She "becomes" the baby sitter and they rekindle the violent SM relationship from his past, but now Casey is a grown man and capable of handing out a much greater, escalating, level of violence.

Casey beats Jessica to death in order to conceal the murder of Beatty's son and thus avenge his step-brother's death. He is also symbolically punishing/destroying the source of his torment and pathology, the baby sitter whom Jessica has come to represent. His youthful experiences have rendered him a psychopath, devoid of conscience, and he is fixated upon immediate, personal whims, without concern for others. Violent murder is a logical progression in his awakened and rapidly escalating sadomasochistic fury. Watch how he covers the faces of both Jessica and Kate during sex, which is generally from behind, so he cannot see their faces. Is it so he can imagine that they are the baby sitter, or perhaps the child-victims of his youth? It's obvious that, in his mind, they represent other people and their faces contradict his mental images.

I believe from this point forward, Casey descends into utter madness and his actions have no logic but to his own twisted psyche. His murder of Kate serves no purpose, because the "purposes" of an insane person are inscrutable. As with the prostitute, he and Kate have engaged in an escalating sadomasochistic sexual relationship and he probably realizes that marriage is not a desirable situation for him, so he simply ends it with a level of violence and detachment that are both shocking and entirely predictable. You don't talk your way out of an engagement to an annoying 'fly', you simply swat it....and then find a fall guy to take the blame.

Now here is where I strongly differ with all other reviewers....the ending. Casey is caught and sent to an asylum, where he whiles away the hours in his cell supposedly watching a strange slide show of pictures of his victims. We are effectively told the slide show is imaginary by the reaction of the nurse when he asks her to slow down the progression of pictures. Watch her reaction. This is a critical and widely overlooked point: the slide show is entirely imaginary, as is everything from that point on. He is not "saved" from the asylum by Bill Pullman (which excuses his otherwise preposterous bellowing), and he does not really return home to plot and execute the destruction of all his adversaries. Jessica is dead. She does not walk into his house and verify her "undying" love, and his tormentors (inexplicably unaware of the gasoline-soaked house) are not all neatly incinerated. This is all a product of Casey's twisted imagination....a glorious, fiery ending rather than the grim reality that his future was really to be spent watching an endless, imaginary slide show on the wall of his dingy madhouse cell. The ending rubs people wrong because it defies 'normal' logic. It is, however, a preposterously, insanely perfect ending when you consider where it actually occurred....in the mind of a psychopath.

Bringing pulp novelist Jim Thompson to screen has always been a tricky proposition. His dark stories are easy to push over the edge of sanity. With their undercurrent of brutality, they can walk the line of comedy and/or surrealism but still maintain a realistic punch to the jaw. Getting that tone has been hit or miss in cinema--personal favorites are the sublime "The Grifters," "Coup de Torchon" and the underrated "After Dark, My Sweet." I was stoked to hear director Michael Winterbottom had taken on "The Killer Inside Me" which had been covered poorly in an earlier production featuring Stacy Keach.

Winterbottom has assembled an impressive cast including Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Ned Beatty, and Kate Hudson for this neo-noir piece. Affleck stars as a low-keyed and likable law enforcement officer who gets involved with a local prostitute and enmeshed in a murderous scheme. But to cover his tracks, further bad deeds need to be done--and Affeck seems to relish this new evil! It's best not to go into the specifics of the plot and to let the film unfold, but Winterbottom does not shy away from some explicit and surprising violence. It's unsettling, to say the least, but helps to establish an effective "anything can happen" feel!

Ultimately the success of "The Killer Inside Me" rests on Casey Affleck's shoulders. He is not the conventional actor one would picture for this role. Small in stature, relaxed in delivery (and enunciation)--his offbeat presence actually makes "The Killer Inside Me" even more intriguing. As he is not a predictable "leading man" or a particularly menacing presence, you're never quite sure what he's going to do. I found this lack of expectation to be quite invigorating and led me to accept and appreciate the twists of the film to a greater degree. To be fair, the film does get loopier and loopier--but I was happy to follow this sordid tale through to the completely over-the-top finale! KGHarris, 8/10.

"The Killer Inside Me" has created so much controversy over the past year because of the brutal s&m sex scenes and a vicious beating of the character Joyce (Jessica Alba) by the main character, Lou (Casey Affleck). I have read many reviews on this DVD that have highlighted this scene, and this scene only, which is a shame because the rest of the movie deserves merit too. Sources claim that Jessica Alba walked out in disgust and Casey Affleck did not attend the premiere. Both of these claims have been verified by the director (Michael Winterbottom). Anyone who is familiar with Winterbottom's work knows that this is not his first controversial film. "9 Songs" (2004) was also surrounded by controversy because of unassimilated sex scenes, and was panned by critics.

I want to start by analysing the pivotal scene where Joyce is beaten by Lou. Proffesional reviews of this film have claimed, because of this scene, that it is a "slippery slope from kinky sex play to vicious homicide", that "sex might be hot for these guys, but it's always foreplay to death". Both these claims are, in my opinion, ridiculous. Feminists that write on the film claim that it portrays women as weak, through Joyce not fighting back. Though I agree that it does not portray a positive light on women in the film, it also has to be taken into consideration that these women are not portrayed as the norm. It is obvious from the beginning that Joyce is a character with severe mental problems and Amy (Kate Hudson) is not given a chance to fight back. Also it is evident that Lou is as weak and problematic as the two girls. The death scenes don't glamorize women's death scenes as is the norm and the claims that the movie is like an s&m porn movie are highly ridiculous. One reviewer said "You can be turned on, but only if you're also horrified". I did not find anything erotic about the sex scenes. They fulfilled their purpose of making the viewer uneasy.

The only main problem I found with the movie was that the flashback sequences were a little too unclear. I was not aware from my watching that the woman in these scenes was his babysitter as a child and I am still confused slightly about the murder of his stepbrother. I understood why he became so deranged by these scenes but they weren't entirely clear. That said, if they played much more of a part in the film they would have taken away from the present day circumstances.

The acting within the film was superb. Affleck shone as the deranged serial killer. I believed, he himself did not know why he was killing people. The main surprise of the movie, however, was Alba. I was originally turned off this movie because of her stiff acting in other works such as "Honey", "The Eye" and "Awake". Though she has said, on several occasions that she wanted to be seen as a serious actress, I did not see any conviction for this until now. Her portrayal of Joyce was both dramatic and nuanced. Hudson was also in top form as Amy, Lou's girlfriend and the rest of the supporting cast were well-acted with the one exception of Johnnie (Liam Aiken), though that can be excused because he was not seen often.

In conclusion, I think that "The Killer Inside Me" fulfilled its goal of leaving the viewer with a sense of unease and was a successful film noir, reversing the idea of the femme fatale slightly and is another example of Casey Affleck's rise in Hollywood.

This movie starts on a "Blood Simple" note. A narrator philosophically distances us from the action with a quiet reflection on what it means to be a Texas gentleman. This film continues to have echoes of "Blood Simple," but it proceeds in a somewhat different direction. In this case, the narrator turns out to be the main character, so we don't remain distanced from the action for long. We're soon enough plummeted first-person into the horrible heart of his twisted code of conduct.

Then whereas "Blood Simple" could almost be viewed as a comedy of errors, with everyone getting tripped and triggered at cross-purposes into bloody rejoinder - here the bloodshed is all the result of the one character's warping. The focus on the horror is so singular and intense that certainly all possibility of comedy is stripped from the scenes.

It's this aspect of the movie that gave me pause. Could such a monster really walk among us? Surely the man is a sociopath, and as "Criminal Minds/CSI" shows have convinced us - sociopaths are rife. But are there sociopaths who commit their acts with as little motive as this man does? There were obviously easier ways for him to solve his problems than by committing the cruelties we see. Neither did his cruelty seem to be aimed at satisfying any lust, any need for power and control, or anything as slight as a hankering for a cheap thrill. There's even a moment when he seems to have a back-handed regret about what he's doing - when he leans over a victim and reassures her that her ordeal is "almost over now." So why is he doing it?

And then I wondered if such women could exist who would really love such a person? The man is not physically prepossessing and doesn't seem to have any special charms other than his soothing southern drawl. He does say that he tried to be a good boyfriend for the relatively short time he spent with the women in his life. He congratulates himself on "taking them places they wanted to go and to movies they wanted to see." But is this enough to make women fall hopelessly in love with a man and to lend themselves to the full extent of his brutality with so little resistance? Or was this movie just an over-the-top misogynist's dream that wasn't telling me anything true about the world?

But reflecting on it, considering this movie as more than just casual entertainment and taking it as serious sociology - I had to admit that such people DO exist. There are people who do what they do simply because, in Edmund Hillary's famous line, "It was there." And there are women who feel compelled to lend themselves to extremes of violence. Feminist Andrea Dworkin said that a woman proves her love by her willingness "to be destroyed by the one whom she loves, for his sake." Scenes in this movie provide graphic, gut-wrenching illustrations of that observation.

Casey Affleck is riveting in his role. His quietude makes us lean in, in spite of ourselves, to catch his every intention. His calm, sinuous assurances, uttered even in the midst of his worst violence, will probably be etched in most of our memories. So when we are at our lowest ebb, in our darkest hour, we will, with a combination of false sympathy for ourselves and with a pepper spray of the sardonic, similarly reassure ourselves that "it's almost over."

Coincidentally, close on the heels of "The Killer Inside Me," I saw Affleck's portrayal of the man who shot Jesse James in the movie "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." (Affleck seems to be very specifically typecast into playing southern characters named "Ford.") In "Jesse James," Affleck uses exactly the same voice, the same soft slurry that he uses in "The Killer Inside Me." But there is a mirroring quality to his acting that reflects differently depending on the tint of the movie he's in. In "Jesse James," his low-key elisions are just as engrossing, just as subtly premonitory of murder - but he nevertheless presents himself in a different cast. So you might want to make a Casey Affleck double feature of your evening, going from "The Killer Inside Me" to "The Assassination of Jesse James," watching him as two types of killers - if you have the stomach to watch such back-to-back betrayal.

Ever since I first saw the movie poster for The Killer Inside Me (2010)', I've wanted to check out the film. The poster is a great blend of graphics and photography with a retro dramatic twist. This is one of my favorite movie poster designs in recent years. It made me think of David Fincher's perfect serial killer film Se7en (1995). I'm also a fan of director Michael Winterbottom and his film The Claim (2000), so that was another thing that drew me to this movie. But having seen The Killer Inside Me on Showtime HD today, I feel it's a mixed bag as a movie. I give it 3 stars out of 5, mostly because the acting, production design and cinematography are top notch and deserve the bump up from 2.5 stars that I initially felt the film deserved.

The story and characters in this movie just didn't connect with me...even though they tried and tried to get inside me. I read someone's review of the film and they felt that the story is told from the point of view of the psychotic killer that it is about, with mixed emotions, mixed thoughts, etc. While I respect and understand that choice by the writers and the director, assuming that they chose it, it just didn't work as well as I think it could have. I think what's missing is something that emotionally pulls the viewer into the killer's mindset and helps us understand what's going on in his head that causes his gradual and yet abrupt "psychotic snap". Maybe more flashbacks to his childhood past that show why he is a killer inside. Winterbottom uses voiceover narration by 'Casey Affleck's' character Lou Ford to help get us into his mindset, but the narrative is so flat that it just doesn't work. I was left wanting to know more about how Lou got to this point in his life. But instead, it ended just as it started...abruptly. The ending of the movie didin't quite work for me either. It wants to be a "twist" ending that thrills you, but it just didn't...even though it did surprise me.

What I will give this film props for is its awesome production design by 'Mark Tildesley'. There's no question we are back in the dusty past of West Texas. The sets and locations feel genuine and right for the story. Lou's house is a great specimen of Western U.S. craftsman architecture. I also loved 'Marcel Zyskind's' photography for the film. While not flashy or gorgeous, it was stylish and had this sun-bleached look to it like West Texas itself has.

Casey Affleck continues his recent streak of great acting gigs, following in the footsteps of his good performances in 'Gone Baby Gone (2007)', 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)', 'and The Last Kiss (2006)'. But of course I will always think of his work in 'Good Will Hunting (1997)' first and foremost, since that is where I was introduced to him and his brother Ben.

While The Killer Inside Me is not a classic "killer" film like ''Se7e'n' (1995)', 'No Country For Old Men (2007)', 'The Cell (2000)', 'Fracture (2004)', 'Kiss The Girls (1997)', 'Insomnia (2002)', or 'The Silence of the Lambs (1991)', it's still worthy of viewing at least once to appreciate it for its cinematic craftsmanship.

This noir thriller of a movie is very realistic especially when it transforms from book to film, in many areas. It is a great screenplay and an outstanding job of acting by Casey Affleck, who by whatever means, truly deserves the 2010 Academy Award nomination and win for Best Actor. I not going into detail regarding the movie for those that have not seen this sleeper gem of a flick. Of course, there will be a great number of people that do not like the way the book was transformed to the big screen, especially when it comes to the film's horribly predictable ending. This film is not for the faint of heart [or the squeamish] - the brutality of the film conveys the rage of "The Killer Inside Me." But, with all of today's films that attempt to be exciting by regimented placement of gratuitous violence and gore, that is where "The Killer Inside Me" truly shines. We actually want to see more - more beatings, more blood, more bruises and more bodily fluids seeping out of the half breathing bodies, the soon-to-be ex-friends of sociopath Lou Ford. The remainder of the ensemble cast is also very believable with their brief onscreen supporting roles. Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson are just sublime as Lou's love interests, that is, if Lou could really and truly love someone at all. Lou doesn't even love himself.

Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who worked with Thompson on the script for the 1956 movie "The Killing," praised the novel, stating that it was "probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered."

Jessica Alba should fire her agent after this movie. Casey Affleck plays Lou Ford, a small Texan town sheriff in the 1950's(?). Ford likes the refined things of life, and is overly sadistic in his relationship with women. He kills two people in what he thinks is a perfectly planned crime, only to watch it unravel before his eyes. He then has to kill more people to cover up his deeds, which leads to more suspicion. Beating women with a belt he considers foreplay due to a twisted child relationship. During the film two women are brutally and graphically beaten. The "graphic nudity" warning on the box doesn't seem to have anything to do with scantily clad Jessica Alba who plays a prostitute, but may be because of some black and white nude from behind photos. I thought the plot and acting were good, but this is one of those cases where the screen adaptation simply didn't live up. The characters come at you rather quickly without much introduction. I found myself attempting to figure out who people were instead of simply enjoying the movie.

Killer inside me is a big screen adaptation of the noir novel of the same name by Jin Thompson.
Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) is a deputy sheriff in Texas, he is sick and uncontrollable with an extreme appetite for abuse and violence. He has been getting away with it since childhood. He murders a local prostitute played by Jessica Alba. So sure that he would not be implicated, he is taken unawares when clues start to point to him. So in order to set things straight he embarks on a cleaning up mission which involves killing people.
Although this movie has a good teaser, it just fails to catch fire. Every thirty minutes or so, I expected that things would perk up but they never did. There is a lot of gruesome violence especially against women, which some may find revolting. There are a lot of funny lines and interesting dialogue but the story fails. The actors are all wasted, the females have nothing to do except serve as punching bags for Affleck. Casey Affleck does a great job portraying a psychotic killer but his emotional mind is never fully explored, that would have been interesting. The movie was average except for the extraordinary violence. The ending was weak, so just three stars. 11/1/10

OMG one of the best movies ever if you like this kind of stuff not for everybody, graphic violence but you just can't look away, academy award for Casey.

A fresh approach at the serial killer formula, it is completely original and pulls off a brilliant script to create not only an A grade movie, but a completely satisfying brutal killer flick as well.
Realistic hardcore voilence and sexual voilence done in a superb manner that doesnt shy away but is not over the top either. You will have to keep up with plot too, because the movie isn't sign posted or generic.

I wouldn't call it a horror film, though it will certainly quench the horror cravings. Not for prudes or the squeamish. Original, Intelligent, Satisfying