20140131: Horror Review--Kill Theory

Kill Theory

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2009, NR, 85 minutes, horror, slasher.
2. IMDB: 5.6/10.0 from 4,198 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 6 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' 27% liked it from 986 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 119,556 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Chris Moore.
6. Starring: Agnes Bruckner as Jennifer, Patrick John Flueger as Michael, Taryn Manning as Alex, Theo Rossi as Carlos, Teddy Dunn as Brent, Don McManus as Dr. Karl Truftin.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The picture opens with Walter getting out of a psychiatric institution after three years for killing three of his friends.  Walter and Karl discuss this for nuances.  Karl wants to see how well Walter does in the next year, and schedules regular visits.


2. The film transitions to another environment where Walter can execute another kill-the-group exercise.  Brent and Amber, Michael and Jennifer, Carlos and Nicole, the heavy loner Freddie, and the biker girl Alex.  The group celebrates (early) their upcoming graduation at a remote vacation house that  belongs to Michael's family.


3. After a night of drinking and storytelling, they retire for the evening.  Nicole gets up to get a snack, and Walter grabs her.  He offers her the choice of killing Carlos or being murdered herself.  She chose the latter; Walter records the whole thing, then throws Nicole's corpse through a window onto Carlos.  Michael tries to get his father's rifle from the basement, but Walter had already taken it,  In its place he left many photos from the preceding two weeks.  Walter calls them on a radio and tells him that they have to kill each other for any of them to survive (winner take all or all lose).  Michael and Carlos go out to get the pistol in his father's boat.  The boat has been sunk, and Carlos gets badly injured on the way back.  Michael leaves Carlos there since Michael thought he was dead.


4. What's left?  It's classic elimination derby.  Whom can one trust?  Do we have to hear every detail from Walter's first killing spree?


3. Conclusions
1. Seems that they made absolutely no plans, much less concerted attempts to find the killer and take him out.  Of course, Walter had most of this planned out so that they would feel powerless and confused.
2. One line summary: Shows the bad decision making of the victims in an elimination derby.
3. Two stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Nicely shot, including the majority of the film which was shot in low-light.


2. Sound: 8/10 No real problems.


3. Acting: 3/10 Lousy.  I've seen worse, but not too much worse.


4. Screenplay: 3/10 Ordinary.  The victims are very unimaginative, which eliminated most of their possibilities.  As it was, the victims did most of the killer's work for him.  The histrionics were not all that interesting, and did not illustrate motivations all that well.  For instance, why did these 'friends' have so much energy devoted to killing each other in very messy, inefficient ways?