The Killer Inside Me (2010)

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Writer: John Curran

The Killer Inside Me is the latest effort from Michael Winterbottom, a prolific British Director, renowned for adapting the un-adaptation and filming the “unfilmable”, transforming The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen – a novel about a narrator who is so easily distracted that by the end he has not even come to his own birth – into a typically British comedy farce. This time, he turns the brutal and unrelenting 1952 Jim Thompson American pulp novel into a stylish noir thriller, with graphic depictions of sadomasochism.

Casey Affleck plays Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford. He lives in a small town, leading a quite unremarkable life. People think him slow and boring, but little do they know that under that facade exists a sociopath with a masochistic sexual orientation. At the appeal of the Sheriff, Lou pays a visit to Joyce Lakeland (Jessica Alba), a prostitute having an affair with businessman Chester Conway's son, in order to evict her from the county due to her bad influence. In retaliation for Lou's treatment of her, Joyce begins to slap him. This unleashes Lou's anger, and he throws her to the bed and begins to flog her with his belt, in the same way Lou's mother had been abused. The scene lingers uncomfortably on the prostitute's anguish as her initial struggles turn to pleasure, and the two make violent love: the beginning of a passionate affair. Winterbottom drives these shocking brutal sadomasochistic scenes to the extreme, portraying them exactly how they would be written in the pulp novel, but he never takes them over the edge, instead leaving the audience balancing on the verge of disgust.

When Lou refuses to leave town with her, the two hatch a plan to extort $10,000 out of Conway. Lou is instructed to oversee the payment, made by Conway's son, but Lou has other plans. Prior to the meeting, Lou brutally and unrelentingly beats Joyce to a bloody pulp, not even stopping when she ceases to move. When Conway's son arrives, Lou shoots him to death, planting the gun in Joyce's hand, in what resembles a murder-suicide. Under the suspicion of his girlfriend Amy (Kate Hudson) that Lou is cheating on her, previous victims attempting blackmail on him, and the District Attorney who believes Joyce couldn't be capable of her alleged actions, Lou is forced into more drastic and gruesome deeds in order for his depraved urges to remain hidden.

Casey Affleck plays the role of Lou Ford brilliantly and unnervingly. His constant high-pitched mumble and occasional blow-outs exudes innocence, giving hint towards a socially undeveloped child. His constant talk in platitudes and clichés add to his quiet, reserved insanity. The reason he does the things he does is hinted at in brief flashbacks of his sordid relationship with his mother, and this is reflected in his relationship with Joyce. He realises that what he is doing is wrong but does it anyway, not knowing why. In a fit of passion he disregards the dangers of sleeping unprotected with a prostitute in order to seize what he could not understand as a child. After discarding Joyce without hesitation, Lou transfers his love of her onto his girlfriend in order to retain normality so as to not attract suspicion. When Amy smells the scent of an undiagnosed STD, she threatens to leave but Lou clings to normality in order to avoid suspicion, convincing her to stay by any means necessary, including a proposal. It doesn't matter how low it is, Lou will do it in order to continue his shameful vices. He soon begins to repeat his treatments of the prostitute on Amy, who follows along as a victim who doesn't realise she's a victim, desperately in love. Lou just seems to attract women who enjoy pain.

The transformation of Jessica Alba from the object of all pubescent fantasies to a horribly disfigured victim is ironic, and the horrific special effects make-up make it impossible to look away.

The film is not without some fault. As it revolves around an undeveloped character who is not even aware of why he does the things he does, a lot of viewers will find difficulty in emoting with him, and will become uninterested in his seemingly random outbursts of violence. The film also suffers a disappointing climax as a result of sub-par visual effects which are simply too far out of its budget. Nevertheless, The Killer Inside Me delivers a sometimes intense journey, and Winterbottom has succeeded again in creating a film that dares to sidestep the well-defined Hollywood conventions. Who wants a happy ending anyway?

3½ / 5