Thou Shalt Kill is a serial killer based thriller directed by Richard Friedman and written by Nathan Illsley. It starts off in a great place, with each subsequent act unfortunately not being quite as good as the one that came before. Having a focus on dialogue over action this has some great scenes, even if the plot crashed into a clumsy conclusion.
Shannon (Augie Duke - Exit 0, Spring) is a recovering alcoholic going through a messy break-up with her wife, who is determined to gain custody of their child. Realising what a poor chance she has of getting custody for herself, in misery and desperation Shannon gives in to her urges and buys a huge bottle of alcohol. Sat in her car drowning her sorrows she believes things couldn't possibly get worse, but then a serial killer (Vince Lozano) operating in the area makes his move and abducts her.
Awaking tied up in the back of the killer's car, the killer - Hank, is surprised to find his latest victim isn't scared of him. This begins a discussion about the nature of sin, as Hank attempts to find a way to bring fear into the damaged woman's mind.
I thought the first twenty minutes of Thou Shalt Kill were excellent. This segment mainly takes place with Shannon in her car on the phone to various people, while the serial killer hangs out in front of her, apparently working on his car. Thanks to the prologue sequence we know this man is the murderer that the news reports have mentioned on the radio, so it sets up tension, and a lead up to an inevitable conclusion. I thought that Duke was perfectly cast as the miserable alcoholic character, she brings her battle with her demons convincingly to screen. There becomes a bit of an unreliable narrator feel to her character, as due to her condition she has the option to fall into realistic hallucinations in which she is talking to characters who aren't actually there, or finds herself in an entirely different location to the one she is actually in. Hank is the secondary character and has a substantial role. The meat of this nearly ninety minute thriller features a long car journey. Hank believes he is killing the sinful and that he is doing God's work. This contrasts with Shannon, a lapsed Catholic who has no time for it, but also happens to understand the religion. The plot thread for this lengthy second act was mainly about if Hank had the right to kill, and if Shannon had the right to be forgiven for her past sins. These past sins are reflected into flashback sequences that play out whenever Shannon passes out, slowly filling in the backstory of what ended her relationship with her wife.
The third act is where things begin to fall apart for me. There was a twist that the film needed to get to, but to get there, there were some mistakes made. The whole third act felt rushed, as if there were moments missing from the story, and it also felt clumsily executed. The twist felt contrived and unnatural, and to be honest made earlier scenes not really work.
Outside of the story, there are not many scenes of horror here, Hank is mainly content just to speak to his victim, with most the film being the drive to the killer's final destination. These discussions were interesting enough, I liked how Shannon was able to get under Hank's skin purely by not caring if she lived or died. They also got ever so slightly pretentious at times with the deep back and forth talks.
Thou Shalt Kill had an interesting premise, and with Shannon you had an interesting and obviously flawed protagonist. I didn't find Hank as interesting a character, but he back and forth between these two people ensured the film never had a dull moment. Thou Shalt Kill is now available on-demand and across digital platforms from The Horror Collective.
SCORE:
No comments:
Post a Comment