Review: The Killer Inside Me

Winterbottom’s latest goes all American Psycho with a killer that spanks, then slaps and finally silences…

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Simon Baker
Released: 04/06/2010
Rated: 18

Beauty is only skin deep, but madness? Well, that’s something altogether intangible. Michael Winterbottom, director of 24 Hour Party People and Wonderland, broadens his palette yet again with this uncompromisingly distressing, but thoroughly absorbing, adaptation of Jim Thompson’s 1952 noir novel.

Lou Ford (Affleck) is an archetypal sheriff living in a small Texas town. He’s respected, isn’t involved with any backhand dealings and even has an attractive fiancée (Hudson) to come home to. That is until he’s ordered to run prostitute, Joyce Lakeland (Alba), out of town. Instead Ford becomes addicted to her and her vicious sexually habits. This combination of pleasure and aggression triggers psychotic affinities within him, resulting in a series of brutal murders.

Performances from all the lead actors are confident, and Alba fills the role of the socially forbidden lover and tortured victim with unexpected poise. The film’s period setting is also realised well and lighting is used to brilliant effect – the visual juxtaposition of Ford and other characters in the film is where this is most stark.

But no amount of black coffee can prepare you for the malevolent and disturbing scenes of violence that The Killer Inside Me unleashes with such strict demeanour. Raunchy love making is follow by treacherous killings, all of which are “necessary” to Ford. Affleck is unquestionably the showstopper with a chiselled performance as the shrewd-tongued sheriff that stuns and chills. Yet, for all its murky imagery, The Killer Inside Me also likes to undercut these moments with an ounce of dark comedy which adds to the theme of psychosis at the film’s centre.

However, much like the mind of a madman, the plot is not easy to follow. Speaking in their southern accents, characters sometimes go into low, mumbled drawls which often expose the importance of earlier scenes. It is up to the audience to follow events and characters closely as its tangled web unravels.

The Killer Inside Me will surely leave you flustered and perplexed. It’s a hard lined interpretation of how the mind of a killer is awakened through savage sex and an even more savage need to satisfy his murderous ‘logic’. It’s not easy to appreciate the violence in the film, but the equity with which it approaches its subject matter is astounding. A spectacular portrayal of madness, so convincing and powerful that it will leave audiences divided.

Aaron Lee

Tags: casey affleck, icon, jessica alba, killer inside me, screenlit