Reviewed by Paul Buxton

Film Noir. The words conjure up images of a dark, gritty world where danger lurks in every shadow and your best friend’ll stab you in the back for a couple of buck or a wink from a cheap dame. On those mean streets, life is cheap and you never know whether you’re the hunter or the hunted, or if it even matters.
 
“The Killer Inside Me” takes the cynical cut-throat world of noir and turns it on its ass. It’s a movie that’s so brutal, jumbled and stylish that you’re never quite sure what’s going on and even though you may be repulsed by what you’re seeing, you can’t take your eyes off the screen.  It’s the story of a doughy psychopath (Casey Affleck) who’s hell-bent on a convoluted quest for revenge, He doesn’t care who he kills in the process, guilty or innocent; the higher the body count, the more he enjoys it.
 
In a sleepy little sun-scorched West Texas town in the 1950’s, Sherriff Lou Ford (Affleck) hooks-up with local bad girl Joyce Lakeland (Jessica Alba) for a punishing S&M tryst. As savage as their sex is, it’s nothing compared to the havoc Lou later wrecks upon her, her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s dad and various other friends and bystanders once his plan to lay his furious vengeance upon the folks who done him wrong gets up to speed.  Following the logic of Lou’s vindictive grudge, even when it’s explained through his voice-over narration, is oftenconfusing and confounding, mostly because it is explained through his voice-over narration. Affleck’s character is out of his mind, off-the-deep-end CRAZY.  You’re never sure whether what you’re seeing or hearing from his point of view is reality, feral fantasy, wish-fulfillment or some twisted combination of all three.  Further mucking up your perceptionis a soundtrack that chirps out perky Texas Swing numbers during the films darkest and most shocking moments.
 
Watching Affleck slide between sleepy-eyed charm and single-minded psychosis is as frightening as having a faithful dog suddenly ripping at your throat. Jessica Alba uses her vacant talents to good effect here, she’s the spitting image of those slinky femme fatales who graced the paperback covers of a million pulp detective novels. Both she and Kate Hudson, as Affleck’s to-trusting-to-live wife, reveal depths to their acting one might never have suspected from their fluffier films.
 
Whether or not you’ll like “The Killer Inside Me” is, I think, one of those “right brain – left brain” issues. If you watch the film hoping for a logical, linear plot line, this movie might seem like a misogynist train-wreck filled with repellent sex and unmotivated violence; if you regard it as a view into the convoluted psyche of a deeply disturbed serial killer, it’s a sick and creepy thriller you won’t soon forget. Either way, this movie is a gut-punch.
 
“The Killer Inside me” is rated R for disturbing, brutal violence, aberrant sexual content and some graphic nudity. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, Running time 109 minutes
 
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