Director: Jay Baruchel
Writer: Jay Baruchel, Jesse Chabot (Screenplay) Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti (Comic)
Starring: Jesse Williams, Jordana Brewster, Jay Baruchel, Simon Northwood, Niamh Wilson
Plot: A pair of comic book writers begin to notice scary similarities between the character they created and horrific real-life events.
Runtime: 1 Hour 25 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Not So Random
Story: Random Acts of Violence starts as comic artist Todd (Williams) agrees to go on a road trip with his girlfriend Kathy (Brewster) who is studying The Slasherman Killer real life story, the inspiration behind the comic, Ezra (Baruchel) the artist with Todd, along with his assistant and aspiring comic book artist Aurora (Wilson).
Todd does get to do some press on the journey, but things take a turn for the worse, when reports of murders similar to the comic start happening, with the fear the killer may have returned to continue his killing spree.
Thoughts on Random Acts of Violence
Characters – Todd is a comic book author, his comic has a cult following because of the violent nature behind them and the killer leading character he has created from the mysterious serial killer. He is looking to end the comic book with the next edition, while seeing his creations being re-created by a serial killer. Kathy is Todd’s girlfriend, she has been studying the serial killer for years, looking to interview people about the murders, writing her own book about the real killer. Ezra is the partner of Todd’s, he helps arrange the events and joins them on the road trip and tour. he is trying to talk Todd into not finishing the comic, hoping he will continue to get the money out of the ideas.
Performances – Jesse Williams in the leading role shows us how tormented somebody can become with their creation when it is on the darker side. Jordana Brewster does show the ambitious side to her character, while Jay Baruchel does show more skill behind the camera that he gets to give his onscreen character, he is just the friend for most of the film.
Story – The story follows a comic book author and his team, as they go on a road trip tour, where they can promote the latest edition, while doing deeper research into what inspired the creation of the character, a real serial killer that was never caught, who just so happens to start killing in way the comic book created once again. The story does use the ideas that we have seen with copycat style horror, only it doesn’t just go down that road, because the killer inspired the creation in the first place. The road trip side of the film starts interesting, with big hints at exploring the truth behind the killer, but sadly this does seem to get dropped before it gets going, as we could have gone down the path of discussing what the comparisons between true crime and comic book spin could have gone into a lot of detail. Sadly this does just become a run of the mile road trip slasher, that doesn’t seem to want to commit to the darker side it is striving for, where it could have gone as twisted as other films in the genre, like Wolf Creek.
Horror – The horror in the film comes from what the killer does, we seem to only see the aftermath or the first stage of the attack, with the shock value of the creation, the killer has gone out of their way to create.
Settings – The film is a road trip movie, this does create new locations for our characters to be traveling along, while using the shock moments to add to the settings impact.
Special Effects – The film does use great effects when it comes to showing us the aftermath of everything that has happened in the killer’s actions.
Scene of the Movie – The first murders shock value.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – We do seem to drop the investigation into the real killings.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror that tries to bring us some shock value in the kills, while promising violence, only to hide away from it and trying to bring a twisted comic book character to life.
Overall: Shock Value 101.
