Before October was over, I wanted to watch Knives Out. Not horror, it’s more of a murder mystery but it’s funny and it makes just about every list of movies to watch in October. I’m pretty sure that list compilers don’t really understand what I mean by typing in “October movies.” Or maybe the kinds of movies I’m thinking of simply don’t exist. More on that later. Knives Out is the story of the death of a famous writer. (Given the fantastic house in which he lives, a very famous writer—the majority of us only ever modestly supplement our day job incomes with book sales.) But this fantasy of being paid enormous sums for what is really hard work is, well, a fantasy. This writer, who has/had three children, altered his will before his 85th birthday celebration and on this hangs the tale.
The two surviving children, and spouse of the third, have been cut out of the will. Their means of support—they all relied on their father’s largess—is gone and so when the writer dies on the night of his birthday, by suicide, some questions arise. There are many twists in the story, and I won’t give away the ending, but the main question that the private investigator asks is why he was hired in the first place. All the forensic evidence confirms this having been a suicide, and although the adult children’s stories disagree in any particulars, the events surrounding the death seem clear enough. At the center of all of this is the writer’s private nurse. She’s an immigrant and she stays out of family squabbles.
The protests over the will bring out the true character of the children, or, in some cases, their spouses. And although the viewer is clued in early as to what actually happened, like a mystery novel, a vital clue is left out that ties the whole together. It’s quite well done. It’s an October movie like Clue is an October movie, or perhaps Murder by Death. There are some nice shots of trees in color, but it lacks the haunting, melancholy feel that I associate with October films. Will I watch it again? I should think so. Movies like this bear re-watching, if for no other reason than to try to spot “donut holes” (the private detective’s phrase) in the plot. It’s also a reflection on how money can corrupt. But also how desperate people can become when their support system is withdrawn. And that’s truly scary. Knives Out would work on any dark and stormy night, but it’s not horror.
