This one sat in the streaming queue for a while. First, I’m not usually that fond of horror comedy (although Tucker & Dale has warmed me up to it). Second, I expected it to be another Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
BtM:TRoLV was good, but it always nagged at me that everyone did not take it seriously from the start that he was a serial killer. I got that same vibe in the beginning here from the titular infomercial on how to be a serial killer.
It quickly won me over due to the great production of the infomercial, the strength of Dameon Clarke’s performance as Mike Wilson, and me realizing that the infomercial was just a Rupert Pupkin type fantasy playing out in his mind.
It starts off in a Rocket Video store where a rude customer is hassling the clerk. Wilson spots the dweeby put-upon clerk as a potential protege. Mullet – check, baseball cap – check, shirt buttoned to the very top – check, and his name is Bart. Plus, working in a video rental store, he’s about to have a lot of free time.
They follow the customer to the back of the store and Mike kills him. A strong relationship is forged quickly as Bart immediately bonds with Wilson as the Yoda to his Luke Skywalker — if Yoda were a serial killer, and bore a close resemblance to John Cusack.
Wilson shows him the ropes of the serial killing game (literally and figuratively), careful not to move too fast with his student. He gives him weapons training, tells him who makes a good victim, etc.
This is interspersed with bullet points from Wilson’s fantasy infomercial on how to be a serial killer. Don’t steal, don’t rape, respect women, don’t kill animals or children, help the homeless. This guy is actually a better citizen than me; except for, you know, the murders. He even suggests that SKs benefit society, and that maybe he would have even killed Hitler if he was around back then.
A pivotal event sends Wilson and Bart on the run for the last half of the movie. This is a great turn as it prevents the infomercial / mentoring material from wearing out its welcome. I appreciated the new direction and situations they got into.
I rate this a Season 4 of Dexter.
Post-Post Leftovers:
- Just to be clear: you must respect women, but that doesn’t mean you can’t kill them.
- The score is great, but you might want to turn down that sub-woofer; the bass is brutal.
- Strange that Yoda passed the spell-check, but Skywalker did not.
- I will assume it was intentional disrespect and not an error that the picture of Hitler was reversed in this shot. That’ll teach’m!
