What I'm Watching: A Serial Killer's Revenge
Back with a quick little review for all you Triskelions! I'm hoping to push out a few of these over the week, so let's see how that goes.
I am so far behind on these, and always adding more to talk about, that sometimes makes me not post stuff just because I look at the backlog and sigh...
But enough sighing! On to a review!
A Serial Killer's Revenge is a very interesting little flick. So nicely intimate and independent, there's really only three or four characters in the entire thing. At least, those are the ones we care about. I could almost see this being done as a play and it would need very little changing, but I digress.
The story focuses on William, a middle-aged man who has finally been released from prison for killing his family when he was 12. He's never spoken about the incident, and the mystery of why and how it happened remain just that. William has chosen to finally tell his story to an up and coming reporter, in exchange for a series of pills that the pharmcutical company Ryan's wife works for.
It's maybe a bit of a stretch to have these five pills that when taken in series will painlessly end a person's life, but they're little more than a macguffin to use as a plot point, and it's the only stretch they ask of us, so I can let them have this one bit of unreality. And it's not TOO far out of the realm of possibility, just kinda makes things a little off.
The story plays out as a series of interviews Ryan gets from William, and also a series of life lessons William gives back to Ryan. Well, life lessons isn't the best phrase since they get a bit harsh and violent, but William's been in prison for awhile, so his people skills are lacking.
The mystery of William's criminal acts slowly unfolds, and it's pretty masterful. I would've maybe liked a little more nuance to them, and you can see the big twist coming, but the WAY in which it unfolds, and some of the unique details to his story and how they're given out, are really well done, for the most part.
A Serial Killer's Revenge is pretty dark, but tells a gripping tale from a unique perspective, and through an interesting medium, that it's pretty easy to recommend. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this movie going in, but it drew me in very quick, and kept hold of my attention all the way through, even if I figured out the story's broad strokes at an early stage. It was still great to see just how this particular story arrived at the same conclusions, and even where I was wrong about things. Sometimes a movie about conversations is a tough sell, but the acting and subject matter was really quite gripping, and interspersed with more than enough other things going on.
And yes, I am avoiding spoiling it, because this is a movie worth seeing, and I don't think enough people will have heard of this great little mystery/drama/thriller out of England and by a first time director. Especially since it shares a name with an episode of freakin' Ghost Hunters. You might also find it as "The Point of Regret". And because I am sometimes SUPER nice, here it is on IMDB.
