Review of The Killer Inside Me (2010) by Manny C — 16 Oct 2010

In The Killer Inside Me Casey Affleck totally has sex with Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson, but alas not at the same time. But he does have sex with them, and how it does happen in this movie is much more disturbing. Affleck bites, he spanks, he even punches the ladies senseless, but somehow they still manage to love the guy. 'Don't worry sweetheart, it'll be over soon' he whispers. Not surprisingly, the film's director Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, Tristram Shandy, A Mighty Heart) has been dubbed a misogynist scumbag. Those critiques though ignore the fact that Winterbottom is shooting such brutal scenes not because he's enjoying it, but rather because he is trying to stay true to film's literary source, an acclaimed 1952 pulp novel from Jim Thompson. Thompson's novel was praised by no less than filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who called it 'probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered.'.

That warped mind is the subject of Winterbottom's wickedly depraved modern film noir, not for the faint of heart. Affleck is hypnotic and mesmerizing, delivering a powerfully implosive performance as Lou Ford, a Texas deputy sheriff. He's incredibly soft-spoken and very low-key. One would never suspect him being capable of such depraved deeds, but his is a head filled with evil thoughts. But Joyce, a hooker who serves his needs (Alba) knows what lurks beneath, as does Amy (Hudson), the real object of his affection. It is very disturbing to see two female characters so susceptible to abuse, but this is a film seen through the eyes of a real madman. The script by John Curran does tend to rely too much on childhood psychosis to explain Lou, shades of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, but the movie is dynamite.