The Killer Inside Me is based on a book of the same name by Jim Thompson. This is the second adaptation. A film also called The Killer Inside Me was released in 1976 starring Stacy Keach. This is the only incarnation of the tale I have imbibed. It is not a date film.
This film is about Lou Ford (Casey Affleck). In a nutshell (no pun intended), he is a deputy sheriff that is not too complex on the surface. He lives and works in Central City, a small town in Texas. He speaks softly, with a charming accent. Also, he is consumed by an ever growing psychosis that causes him to lash out violently, mostly at women. Having to spank his mother’s ass as a child may have something to do with this. There is a story involving a prostitute (Jessica Alba), Lou’s girlfriend (Kate Hudson) and some money, but to be honest with you, the film could have had Smurfs in it and it would not have mattered. You are not supposed to notice the story so much as the violence.
There are worse depictions of violence against women, but the scenes of it in this film are pretty unnerving. Especially coming from Lou, who seems harmless enough until he punches someone, and thusly the audience quite shockingly and repeatedly. The most brutal of violence is not overflowing in frequency. However the scenes burst through several long stretches of really boring half-narrated plot development. And they tend to kind of go on for a bit to make sure you are nice and uncomfortable. The film is set in the 1950s and the scenes are usually inappropriately (but tension relieving) followed by poppy-country 50s era music. The violence was so attention grabbing in stark contrast to the plot, that I suspect that was the point.
Affleck gives a great performance, however I believe the part could have been written better. I didn’t really “buy” Lou’s psychosis, but it was in no way Affleck’s fault. You could see him trying desperately to make that third dimension appear to viewers, but I am afraid post conversion is the only way we are going to see that. The character was not that deep. Lou was just “normal” then loony. There was no mixing of the two. No character was really written with much depth, which I guess gave the film an evenness, but I would rather have had some further character development before seeing them get beaten to death. But I guess, if the story is boring, why make the characters interesting? We get a glimpse of Lou’s childhood, but only a couple of times, and no in between. We see a total of 2 minutes of before and 1 hour and 47 minutes of after the insanity takes over. I am not opposed to this idea, but specifically in this film, it did not work. Alba and Hudson both give fine performances as well.
One thing that worked well was the confusion induced by the end. I started to question what events I watched were real and what other may have been delusions. The film does not clearly indicate whether or not any of it was in Lou’s head, but it makes sense that some may have. I did kind of have that Sixth Sense epiphany, and ran back through the film in my head trying to decide even if some characters were not real.
I feel kind of odd mentioning this, what with the woman beating and all, but there are some genuinely funny moments in this film. For awhile, Lou is completely oblivious to the fact that people are suspicious of him. When questioned casually by some and more intently by others, he offers flimsy responses that are immediately discarded, and yet he just assumes he is fooling everyone. It’s humorous to watch him light up a cigar during questioning as if he has “won” when he clearly has not.
There is a lot to like about this film (the run time isn’t one of those things; a lot of that 109 minutes is quite dull), and also not to like. I did get some entertainment out of it and can see why others may get more. It is an interesting view for sure, but if you skip it, you will not be missing an essential part of your film viewing journey.
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