Killer Inside Me, The / Le tueur en moi (Bilingual)

For those who have not seen the movie, please read other reviews for plot synopses and be advised that the violence depicted is so graphic and realistic that no immature person should be allowed to view it. For mature viewers, the plot and dialog are reminiscent of Cormack McCarthy's work (i.e. Child of God) in which the psyche of a deranged, perverted lunatic is presented so dispassionately that you actually develop some (albeit minor) affection for him. It is a significant movie and definitely worth watching.

SPOILER ALERT: My review is for those who have seen the movie and are puzzled or disappointed by portions of it, primarily the ending. For ease of recognition, I will use the actor's names, rather than their character names.

Casey's mother died when he was quite young and he was introduced to sadomasochistic sex by a baby sitter. As a result, he begins molesting girls much younger than himself and is caught in the act by his adopted older brother, who is revolted by his behavior. Subsequently, when knowledge of Casey's crimes become wide spread, his innocent brother, being older, is punished while he is not. When the brother returns (from jail?) he begins working on a construction crew and is killed through the negligence of construction magnate, Ned Beatty. All of this is sublimated within Casey's mind until the nightmare is awakened when prostitute, Jessica Alba, slaps him. She "becomes" the baby sitter and they rekindle the violent SM relationship from his past, but now Casey is a grown man and capable of handing out a much greater, escalating, level of violence.

Casey beats Jessica to death in order to conceal the murder of Beatty's son and thus avenge his step-brother's death. He is also symbolically punishing/destroying the source of his torment and pathology, the baby sitter whom Jessica has come to represent. His youthful experiences have rendered him a psychopath, devoid of conscience, and he is fixated upon immediate, personal whims, without concern for others. Violent murder is a logical progression in his awakened and rapidly escalating sadomasochistic fury. Watch how he covers the faces of both Jessica and Kate during sex, which is generally from behind, so he cannot see their faces. Is it so he can imagine that they are the baby sitter, or perhaps the child-victims of his youth? It's obvious that, in his mind, they represent other people and their faces contradict his mental images.

I believe from this point forward, Casey descends into utter madness and his actions have no logic but to his own twisted psyche. His murder of Kate serves no purpose, because the "purposes" of an insane person are inscrutable. As with the prostitute, he and Kate have engaged in an escalating sadomasochistic sexual relationship and he probably realizes that marriage is not a desirable situation for him, so he simply ends it with a level of violence and detachment that are both shocking and entirely predictable. You don't talk your way out of an engagement to an annoying 'fly', you simply swat it....and then find a fall guy to take the blame.

Now here is where I strongly differ with all other reviewers....the ending. Casey is caught and sent to an asylum, where he whiles away the hours in his cell supposedly watching a strange slide show of pictures of his victims. We are effectively told the slide show is imaginary by the reaction of the nurse when he asks her to slow down the progression of pictures. Watch her reaction. This is a critical and widely overlooked point: the slide show is entirely imaginary, as is everything from that point on. He is not "saved" from the asylum by Bill Pullman (which excuses his otherwise preposterous bellowing), and he does not really return home to plot and execute the destruction of all his adversaries. Jessica is dead. She does not walk into his house and verify her "undying" love, and his tormentors (inexplicably unaware of the gasoline-soaked house) are not all neatly incinerated. This is all a product of Casey's twisted imagination....a glorious, fiery ending rather than the grim reality that his future was really to be spent watching an endless, imaginary slide show on the wall of his dingy madhouse cell. The ending rubs people wrong because it defies 'normal' logic. It is, however, a preposterously, insanely perfect ending when you consider where it actually occurred....in the mind of a psychopath.

Bringing pulp novelist Jim Thompson to screen has always been a tricky proposition. His dark stories are easy to push over the edge of sanity. With their undercurrent of brutality, they can walk the line of comedy and/or surrealism but still maintain a realistic punch to the jaw. Getting that tone has been hit or miss in cinema--personal favorites are the sublime "The Grifters," "Coup de Torchon" and the underrated "After Dark, My Sweet." I was stoked to hear director Michael Winterbottom had taken on "The Killer Inside Me" which had been covered poorly in an earlier production featuring Stacy Keach.

Winterbottom has assembled an impressive cast including Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Ned Beatty, and Kate Hudson for this neo-noir piece. Affleck stars as a low-keyed and likable law enforcement officer who gets involved with a local prostitute and enmeshed in a murderous scheme. But to cover his tracks, further bad deeds need to be done--and Affeck seems to relish this new evil! It's best not to go into the specifics of the plot and to let the film unfold, but Winterbottom does not shy away from some explicit and surprising violence. It's unsettling, to say the least, but helps to establish an effective "anything can happen" feel!

Ultimately the success of "The Killer Inside Me" rests on Casey Affleck's shoulders. He is not the conventional actor one would picture for this role. Small in stature, relaxed in delivery (and enunciation)--his offbeat presence actually makes "The Killer Inside Me" even more intriguing. As he is not a predictable "leading man" or a particularly menacing presence, you're never quite sure what he's going to do. I found this lack of expectation to be quite invigorating and led me to accept and appreciate the twists of the film to a greater degree. To be fair, the film does get loopier and loopier--but I was happy to follow this sordid tale through to the completely over-the-top finale! KGHarris, 8/10.

"The Killer Inside Me" has created so much controversy over the past year because of the brutal s&m sex scenes and a vicious beating of the character Joyce (Jessica Alba) by the main character, Lou (Casey Affleck). I have read many reviews on this DVD that have highlighted this scene, and this scene only, which is a shame because the rest of the movie deserves merit too. Sources claim that Jessica Alba walked out in disgust and Casey Affleck did not attend the premiere. Both of these claims have been verified by the director (Michael Winterbottom). Anyone who is familiar with Winterbottom's work knows that this is not his first controversial film. "9 Songs" (2004) was also surrounded by controversy because of unassimilated sex scenes, and was panned by critics.

I want to start by analysing the pivotal scene where Joyce is beaten by Lou. Proffesional reviews of this film have claimed, because of this scene, that it is a "slippery slope from kinky sex play to vicious homicide", that "sex might be hot for these guys, but it's always foreplay to death". Both these claims are, in my opinion, ridiculous. Feminists that write on the film claim that it portrays women as weak, through Joyce not fighting back. Though I agree that it does not portray a positive light on women in the film, it also has to be taken into consideration that these women are not portrayed as the norm. It is obvious from the beginning that Joyce is a character with severe mental problems and Amy (Kate Hudson) is not given a chance to fight back. Also it is evident that Lou is as weak and problematic as the two girls. The death scenes don't glamorize women's death scenes as is the norm and the claims that the movie is like an s&m porn movie are highly ridiculous. One reviewer said "You can be turned on, but only if you're also horrified". I did not find anything erotic about the sex scenes. They fulfilled their purpose of making the viewer uneasy.

The only main problem I found with the movie was that the flashback sequences were a little too unclear. I was not aware from my watching that the woman in these scenes was his babysitter as a child and I am still confused slightly about the murder of his stepbrother. I understood why he became so deranged by these scenes but they weren't entirely clear. That said, if they played much more of a part in the film they would have taken away from the present day circumstances.

The acting within the film was superb. Affleck shone as the deranged serial killer. I believed, he himself did not know why he was killing people. The main surprise of the movie, however, was Alba. I was originally turned off this movie because of her stiff acting in other works such as "Honey", "The Eye" and "Awake". Though she has said, on several occasions that she wanted to be seen as a serious actress, I did not see any conviction for this until now. Her portrayal of Joyce was both dramatic and nuanced. Hudson was also in top form as Amy, Lou's girlfriend and the rest of the supporting cast were well-acted with the one exception of Johnnie (Liam Aiken), though that can be excused because he was not seen often.

In conclusion, I think that "The Killer Inside Me" fulfilled its goal of leaving the viewer with a sense of unease and was a successful film noir, reversing the idea of the femme fatale slightly and is another example of Casey Affleck's rise in Hollywood.