Review of I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016) by Khaled M — 29 Mar 2017

I was VERY excited to hear about this movie. I read the book (and it's sequels) and I was hooked...and horrified.

John Wayne Cleaver (no relation to the actor or the serial killer) is a death obsessed teen living in a middle-o-nowhere burg where his house is also the town's mortuary. He works on the dearly departed with his Mother (an emotionally exhausted woman with no idea how to connect with her son), an Aunt with a wry detachment from her work and the family drama, and a visiting sister who likes to make her visits short as possible. John is fairly certain he's next in line in those books you read about dangerous psychopaths who make a mess of a bunch of folks and then spend their remaining lives as exhibits in the local penitentiary. All he needs to do is make the first kill...

Suddenly, his sleepy hamlet is violently awoken by a serial killer committing gruesome massacres all over town.

John decides to track the culprit himself...and what he finds will change his life (and the lives of those around him) forever.

Max Records, who plays John, gives a great performance as the unbalanced yet moral Cleaver. Laura Fraser is great as his world weary helpless Mom.

But I think the highest praise of all goes to Christopher Lloyd. He plays John's elderly next door neighbor Bill Crowley, who is sick and tired of always being sick and tired. Lloyd is a national treasure, but unfortunately he winds up cast in too many B-movies where he's the kooky oldtimer or the Judge Doom-esque nutty bad guy. Here he brings brilliantly to life a man who feels the weight of his years about to crush him completely and does whatever he can to just keep breathing.

How this all relates to John's story, you must and should see for yourself. This movie has suspense, mystery, and true bonechilling terror...a near-perfect horror film based on a near perfect book (whose sequels I hope come to life on the big screen soon.).