Product Details

• Actors: Doug Barron, Jason Brill, Paula Cale, Alice Drummond, Mike Hodge
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• VHS Release Date: June 4, 2002
• Run Time: 82 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305240663
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,826 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Photographer and director Cindy Sherman has obviously always been interested in film. Her well-known Untitled Film Stills, from movies that don't exist--pregnant scenes that seem as though they are in medias res but are really staged--feature diverse characters who, upon closer examination, prove to be Sherman herself, every time. Her 1998 film debut, Office Killer, takes her postmodern playfulness with such narrative frames out of the equation--and leaves us with something more flatly macabre and less subtle than Sherman's other work.

Here, Carol Kane plays Dorine, a mousy, lonely, and introverted copyeditor for a consumer publication. Think for a moment what kind of person a copyeditor must be: this is the person whose job, whose passion, it is to know exactly where the apostrophe goes and to know the difference between effect and affect. The pressure can get to you.

Tyrannized at home by a domineering mother and tyrannized at work by backstabbing coworkers, downsizing, and newfangled computers, Dorine finds that the copy she cleans up is her only pleasure in life. As pressure builds and builds--Kane's performance exhibits amazing mastery of body language--Dorine finally caves and steps into an insanity that, in a horrifying, animalian fashion, has its own pleasantness and reason. Despite Kane's strong acting here, she is supported by flattish performances from Molly Ringwald, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Barbara Sukowa.

It is unclear if Sherman means to serve or redefine the concept of narrative through this emotional detachment she brings to the screen. Certainly, this isn't a conventional film, and its cinematography and innovative story are indeed attention-keeping, even entertaining, on a horror-flick level at least. If her goal is to serve narrative canonically, then she fails almost miserably. If her goal is to redefine narrative, then she may have achieved something here that most critics aren't clueing into. It's just unclear what this achievement is. --Erik J. Macki

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How to build your OWN home office for pennies a day!, March 28, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Office Killer [VHS] (VHS Tape)

When still photographer Cindy Sherman announced she was making a feature film, the buzz was high in the indie community---high enough to warrent interest from Carol Kane, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Molly (yes) Ringwald. The film was released in late '97 to scalding reviews, denouncing it as sick, perverted, unfunny and simply pointless.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the role Carol Kane has been waiting for all her life, after getting relegated to B and C roles in everything from the "Stranger Calls" series to the newly released "Jawbreaker". She gleams with an eerie intensity as seemingly mousy copywriter Doreen Douglas, whose downsizing to a part-time, work at home position, is just the catalyst she needs to plunge into the abyss of madness. For Doreen, her job IS her life, and when it's taken away, she takes steps to ensure her life doesn't leave quietly. "Office Killer" comes at a time when working at home is becoming more and more common place, and with it, the detachment inherent is bound to affect those who have little else going on in their lives. Kane's Doreen makes sure that if she can't be with her co-workers, they can sure be with her, under any circumstances.

Tripplehorn turns in an appropriately plastic performance as the nice-girl-turned-climber and Ringwald chews the scenery as a bitchy writer who seems to be the only one to recognize Kane's increasingly bizarre behavior. Only Barbara Sukowa, as the managing editor, turns in a way way over the top turn, that is grating in it's staginess.

The most gruesome scenes here are almost borderline funny, which sounds sick, I know. But if taken in the context of Doreen's warped mind and Kane's sharp characterization, the result is Pathos mixed with nausea.

"Office Killer" may not be a movie you would even want to see, but it isn't half as bad as you've read. The problem most people have with it I think----is that it hits them where they live and makes them uncomfortable. But, then again, independant cinema needs more films like that.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ABSOLUTELY MOUTH-WATERING, June 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Office Killer [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As a die hard fan of cindy sherman...I have to say that I was dying just to get ahold of this movie and when I finally did.....gee....I nearly had an orgasm while watching it. this is definetely a piece of sherman's work...you can see it all through out the movie, although this movie is not for everyone.....I think it was delicious I adore her work and nearly passed out when I held the cover to the movie...isn't that great? well I think that everyone has their own opinion and that is fair...I don't think that she was looking to please everyone and that's what makes good films...to me at least. If you enjoyed this movie or are a fan of her work I would be delighted to talk with you! email me at: [e-mail]

kiss kiss

Aa

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An artsy horror flick!!, August 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Office Killer (DVD)

I think this is a fabulous independent film. People are acting shocked and disgusted by this movie, but what did they expect?The movie, after all, is called office killer!! It's campy and over the top, like most great horror films. Watch this movie with an open mind and enjoy!!