Boring All Around

*This review does contain spoilers*



Deputy Sherriff Lou Ford (Affleck) is sent out to run a local prostitute out of town, except he finds himself drawn to her. Eventually Lou succumbs to his inner demons and begins to brutally murder those around him and is slowly but surely unmasked as one West Texas most prolific and psychotic serial killers.

The Killer Inside Me has an unusual atmosphere, it is unbelievably slow paced, little character development seems to be used in the film which is based on a legendary and well know book. It seems like the Killer Inside Me is purposely trying to stop itself from being simply just a film about a murderous maniac who is hell bent on killing. It slows down for the awkward sexual scenes or brutal torture, with some really strange flashbacks that visually make no sense and plot wise never seem to be fully explained. There are some unusual moods on display in some of the sex scenes, and some odd after effects in one of them. Lou Ford is oddly pictured in this film as a man who enjoys the rougher side of the sexual experience, yet after one of the scenes he is calmly shown smoking a cigar while an old western tune plays in the background. There seems to be a lack of character in Ford at times. It may be that that they wanted to capture all his moods, and how quickly he can change on a dime but for a film that comes in at under 2 hours it makes the progression and the outcome seem entirely stretched.

There seems to be a lot lacking from the middle of this film it seems. It’s just Lou Ford trying to con his way out of a jail time. There is no other real purpose to the plot, it seems so much like they spent a lot of time worrying about how the character will worm his way out of the situation, rather than his complete transformation from a passive local Deputy Sheriff into a Psychopathic homicidal killer.

The killer Inside me features a few scenes of unnerving violence, that are enough to make even those who have seen gory horror flicks cringe and want to turn away. It’s not because Lou Ford hacks up his victims with a machete or a chainsaw but solely because it is a relentless attack with his own two fists that seems to drag on for about 3 minutes, which is about 2 and a half more minutes then necessary. It even has nothing to do with the actors, it’s just a scene of brutal violence that seemingly does not let up until you either have your eyes closed or you just simply do not care what happens in the rest of the film. There are two of these scenes, and the first one is enough for you to know when the second is coming, so my advice to you is if you do not like violence of this graphic nature just skip it, especially the second incident, because there are a few moments where you think it is over only for it to continue.

The actors do not seem to runaway with these performances, Affleck coming off his major break in Jesse James seems rather flat faced and dull in every scene other than those of pure violence. It just makes his performance seem even creepier, and his sexual scenes just seem to be really awkward and not in the way the film intends it to be. Hudson for lack of a better term is lacking in all sense of the word. Her sexual scenes with Affleck are just horrible, there is no striking chemistry between the two, even though their characters are going through a rough patch, they just cannot seem to get on the same level. Hudson seems to sit there with a square face, while Affleck takes the lead and tries to make the scene better, but it always seems to fail. It seems like Casey fails to ignite any sort of spark under his character that makes him a unique character. He is no different from any killer in any other slasher flick or thrill kill flick. As much as I like Casey this simply is a downgrade from his recent streak of top notch performances. The disappointment in acting stops when it comes to Jessica Alba and Elias Koteas. Koteas plays a small part as a man who is beginning to figure out the real Lou Ford. Alba has never looked so seductive and has never to this point in her career been so convincing in her portrayal of a dramatic character. This could be the reason why the scenes of violence seemed so much more intense. Her painful expressions, her sexual tension all brought realism to a filmed that was ultimately lacking in that department.

As far as films of this nature go, this has got to be one of the most predictable and drawn out films. Spoiler Alert for anyone reading who has intentions of seeing this film, the ending was so cliché. As much as I enjoyed Alba’s fine performance her characters resurgence at the end was a bit of a scapegoat ending. For her character to walk in and say she said nothing about who actually attacked her was downright dumb. Then she walked closer only to have Ford stab her, and the cops to shot him igniting the entire house in a blaze (that looked horribly CGIed if I might add). There was no conclusion, no moral play in the end, just every character who we had seen through out the film killed in one stupid looking blaze. The worst part of all it showed the bodies turning to ash and crumbling together. What a horrible way to end a film that should have been one hell of a masterpiece. The younger Affleck may need to re-examine his acting techniques and fine tune them because something was visibly lacking through out this performance.


5/10