Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck star in the violent and amoralistic film The Killer Inside Me, based on a 1952 pulp novel
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Film review + trailer: The Killer Inside Me (18)
By Kim FrancisJune 09, 2010
Stars Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Simon Baker, Casey Affleck, Elias Koteas
Michael Winterbottom is no stranger to controversy. The British director responsible for 24 Hour Party People (which charts the chaotic story of Tony Wilson’s Factory Records and the Madchester music scene) and 9 Songs (which features scenes of graphic sex) has now whipped up a furore over his latest cinematic release.
An adaptation of Jim Thompson’s 1952 pulp fiction novel, The Killer Inside Me stars Casey Affleck as Lou Ford, deputy sheriff of a small Texas town, who has a compulsion to kill.
He acts on his impulses then conceals his tracks with some elaborate cover-ups and frame-up jobs.
But a suspicious detective is hot on his tail – it’s surely only a matter of time before his arrogance leads to a slip-up and the detective has the evidence he needs to send him down. But Ford may yet have the last word...
The Killer Inside Me has been routinely criticised for its unflinching depiction of violence against women. From a certain perspective, it may seem as though the film has morals akin to a slasher flick, a sub-genre which tends to despatch female victims in the most masochistic of ways, seemingly punishing women for promiscuity.
Jessica Alba’s character, a prostitute, is severely brutalised but, crucially, the audience watches aghast as Ford pulverises her face until it’s swollen and mushy and part of it caves in. The scene is shocking and blisteringly real.
With the psychopath’s motivations revealed as the film progresses, Ford’s sadistic actions are never glorified or universalised. We focus totally on this one man’s sickening behaviour.
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Alba’s character is clearly vulnerable. She’s also someone with whom we sympathise as a result of an inferred hard-hitting back story and an inherent sweetness. It makes Ford’s acts become all the more despicable.
Our disgust is amplified when he rewards the loyalty and good nature of his fiancee Amy (Kate Hudson) with similar detestable treatment.
Some audiences will be appalled but infinitely more damaging is the portrayal of women in Hollywood films like The Hangover and American Pie which insist on objectifying women and drawing them as two-dimensional characters.
Winterbottom elicits a memorable performance from Affleck in the lead, who inhabits one of the most psychologically complex, disturbed and disturbing killers ever committed to celluloid.
He is largely remorseless, with a screwed-up sense of what’s right and acceptable. Outwardly ordinary and ostensibly respectable, Affleck’s Lou Ford is a chillingly-drawn psycho who is never suspected by those closest to him.
Noirish overtones – built with low-key lighting, voiceover, a 1950s setting and a slowly-unravelling plot – bring a powerful and stylish punch to the subject matter: the film’s graphic scenes made all the more harrowing by the production’s glossy appearance.
Also a nihilistic depiction of small-town life, The Killer Inside Me has parallels with John Sayles’s Lone Star as well as John Dahl’s neo-noirs. Recalling Amerian Psycho and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, this is a fascinating, jolting portrait of a man with an unrelenting compulsion to kill.
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