The Killer Inside Me (2010)

I actually approached The Killer Inside Me with the same sort of trepidation I approached The Human Centipede. I've read about how brutal it is. I even tried to talk the two ladies I was watching it with out of watching it because I heard the violence against women in it was so gut wrenching. While it doesn't have the same disgusting central conceit/draw of Human Centipede, in the end it left me feeling similar. All in all, except for a few acting bright spots it left me mostly cold. I feel like Michael Winterbottom hasn't developed enough of a personal style for a movie like this. In my mind, it should have be oppressively tense, like a dusty Body Heat. But Winterbottom keeps undermining himself and the story, especially with his song choices at certain point. There are moments would should be played straight, but the music he chooses is like some West Texas, honky tonk, Benny Hill music. Its a weird choice and does not fit. That being said, Casey Affleck is a great choice for the main character, Lou Ford, he's just right for pulling the audience in with his politeness and then repelling it with his viciousness. Pretty much the way the he is to the population of a small town. In his head, he wants to keep things quiet because he just wants to fit in. Because everyone in a small town knows everyone's business, this becomes increasingly difficult.

This is a missed opportunity, there could have really been something here if they were to develop the characters around him this small town with all of its secret, with Ford, a cop who is actual a killer, but in the end Winterbottom's lifeless direction and the script just suck the air out of it to the point where instead of the tension rising like it should be, or it even being a commentary on community in the 1950's, it just becomes an increasingly dry look at guys in cowboy hats making threats to one another in cars.