Review of How to Be a Serial Killer (2009) by Thomas A — 20 Feb 2010

This movie starts decently enough by building a very interesting relationship between active multiple murderer and aspiring killer. The dialogue between them tends to stay very tight and believable, but the plot runs screaming in the opposite direction towards cliche and sloppy pacing.

One thing about this movie is that I do not believe its writers/producers have an adequate understanding of what the term "serial killer" entails. This main character is not a "classic" or "textbook" serial killer like Dahmer, Gacy, or Bundy but a simple mass murderer (minus the large amount of underlings) like Hitler or any Soviet Union leaders. The distinction is that the "serial killer" has a relationship with his killing that is akin to relationship a normal person has with their sexuality; it is a sometimes all-consuming force that is fueled by fantasy and marked by sexual satisfaction. Mass murderers, of which many modern domestic examples are erroneously labeled "serial killers", do not have the fantasy-fulfillment relationship with their killing but do it for less personal and more ideological reasons. With both groups there is the sociopathic issue of control over life and death, which is why these groups blur a lot and this movie's main character could be seen by some laymen - or just those who disagree with the psychological theories I've read - as a genuine classifiable "serial killer".

Anyways, that whole "I don't see this guy as a true serial killer" did work on some level because it made the killing less creepy and more open to the black comedy genre. At the same time, I think this really worked against it, because I was looking for something that really tread the paper thin line between fucked-up and funny (like House of 1000 Corpses, Severance, anything Troma). A This film doesn't have any gore I think you can definitely do edgy and dark but still funny without much gore, but this film doesn't.

This is an instant watch on a netflix and I suggest you PASS ON IT.