Complete A-Z list


Some Guy Who Kills People

7/10

Stars: Kevin Corrigan, Barry Bostwick, Karen Black, Ariel Gade, Lucy Davis, Leo Fitzpatrick, Eric Price, Lou Beatty, Jr., Janie Haddad, Ahmed Best, Christopher May, Nico Nicotera

Director: Jack Perez

It’s clearly quite a jump from Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus to a small-scale shocker but director Jack Perez makes it and lands comfortably on his feet with a blacker-than-black horror comedy that, were it any blacker, wouldn’t even show up on the screen.

He kicks off with a strong shock sequence that, as is not uncommon in the genre, turns out to be a nightmare suffered by loner and comic-book addict Corrigan. He’s fresh out of a lunatic asylum and back in his small town home and living with his overbearing mother Black who gives him a constant hard time when all he wants is to be left alone when he comes home from his menial job brushing detritus in the local ice-cream parlour. There, tentative romance enters his life in the shape of English immigrant Davis and, later, he is reunited with his estranged 11-year-old daughter Gade who is irrepressible in her delight to be back with her dad.

But Corrigan has more on his mind than romance and parenthood. He is busy slaughtering old enemies from school in as gory and graphic manner as genre fans could hope for, complete with twitching severed hands and explicit beheading…

Enter local lawman Bostwick, who is genuinely funny as he slowly comes to terms with the fact he has a serial killer on his hands. On seeing the severed cranium, he announces, straight-faced, “His eyes follow you” and cheerfully taps veins of black comedy that leaven the film’s gruesome elements. When Corrigan confesses to wanting to kill all his victims, Bostwick’s reply is simple and to the point. “If thinking about killing a bunch of pricks made us guilty, we'd all be locked up for life”.

Key performances are spot on. Corrigan cleverly balances maniac with nerd, Bostwick adds memorably mordant wit to spice up the more gruesome sequences and Black, who now resembles one of the witches from Macbeth and behaves accordingly, is genuinely scary. I would have completely believed her as Norman Bates’ mother. So, I imagine, would have Anthony Perkins. And Gade is sweet as Corrigan’s cheerfully irritating daughter.

Verdict? The blend of gaudy splatter and smart chatter comes up trumps.

Alan Frank

USA 2011. UK Distributor: Koch Media GmbH. Colour.
93 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 06 Oct 2012