You Might Be The Killer (2018)
Directed by Brett Simmons
Viewed on Shudder
You Might Be The Killer may be the best example of why you should never judge a movie by its plot summary. The summary here basically says that Sam, our main character, flees from a masked killer at camp and slowly realizes that he may be the killer, and that he has to have his friend Chuck help guide him through horror movie tropes to try and survive the night. I figured this would be a really hokey tongue in cheek tribute to 80s slasher movies and I am not a huge fan of those kind of nostalgia trips but I decided to watch this because it was featured on Shudder and thought I may as well give this a chance and boy, am I glad I did because I don’t think I have ever been as surprised by a movie as much as this one.
I’ll be honest, I was really worried that this would be a really stretched out whodunnit that would end with Sam learning that he is the killer, but that really isn’t what happens at all. This may be a spoiler but I consider everything that happens less than 20 minutes into the movie not a spoiler so I’ll just reveal this one thing, Sam is the killer and he is being driven to kill by an evil mask. I needed to bring this up because this is when the film goes from good to great and the story becomes what it will actually be for the rest of the movie, which is Sam, with Chuck’s help, trying to figure out how to stop killing people, survive the night, and break the mask’s hold over him.
I love that story! Not just because there’s plenty of meta commentary on what the “rules” of slasher films are, but also because this is a solid horror premise that can be taken seriously and is pretty creepy when you think about it. The horror and comedy blend incredibly well here, and that’s largely due to the performances of Fran Kranz as Sam and Alyson Hannigan as Chuck, who absolutely nailed their roles as Sam, the unfortunate and unwitting vessel of the mask’s evil desires and Chuck, the witty and genre savvy operator of a one stop comic/game/horror shop, who Sam calls for help.
Chuck is unflappable, endlessly witty and knowledgeable about all things horror and that contrasts so well with Sam, whose desperation and genuine fear and repulsion as to what he’s done and has become. I was especially impressed with Kranz’s performance, which reminded me of a young Bruce Campbell straight out of Evil Dead, partially because Sam’s face is almost always covered with blood and Kranz slightly resembles Campbell, but also because of how effortlessly expressive his face is and perfectly suited to the constant, but well timed, tonal shifts between witty tongue in cheek moments and the existential despair that is Sam’s new life. It just perfectly captures this funny but still tragic situation and draws the viewer in, making them imagine what they would do in a crazy situation like this.
That’s one of the main things I liked here, the unique nature of Sam’s affliction and what that means for him, both what we would realistically expect him to do in this situation and how he actually responds. Obviously, Sam wants to keep on living and tries to figure out ways around the problem, consulting Chuck to see if she can offer any guidance on the issue, avoiding the other camp counselors as best he can, and trying to avoid putting on, touching, or even looking at the mask. His first instinct is to break it, but that doesn’t quite work out, for several reasons. Even though breaking the mask doesn’t work, it does lead to some really interesting sequences where we get a bit more into Sam’s head and the mask breaking plot points do lead to some really interesting character development for Sam that I was thrilled to see, particularly because of how genuine and non cynically the characters are treated in a movie where it would have been incredibly easy to make everyone a flat adaptation of one of the various 80s slasher tropes. Not all the characters have this same level of depth, but there are a few twists and turns along the way that caught me off guard. I wouldn’t say this is a particularly twist heavy movie but it’s there in subtle ways.
What really sets You Might Be the Killer apart from other movies that are tributes or meta-commentaries on 80s slasher films is how the unique structure of the film emphasizes everything that made 80s slasher films memorable and fun while cutting out a lot of what made them clunky and cumbersome. Instead of a traditional linear format, we start in media res with about a half dozen people dead and Sam fleeing from a mysterious figure. He calls his friend Chuck to discuss his current predicament and, as per the previous summary, he slowly remembers that he is the killer stalking the camp counselors. While dealing with his main issue, trying to not die and not kill anyone else, Sam slowly begins remembering what happened earlier in the night. His memories come back slowly, clearly a result of the brain melting nature of the mask, and they play out in a non-linear fashion to explain everything important about Sam’s relationships with the other counselors and the precise order of how these horrible killings proceeded.
What I like so much about the nonlinear nature and the style of the movie is almost more of what didn’t happen then what did happen. It would have been so easy to present this story in a linear way and play it completely straight and I am thrilled that instead of an hour of getting to know the counselors and seeing the same scenes that we’re all familiar with play out that, instead, it’s kind of assumed that the audience is familiar enough with 80s slasher movies to connect the dots and figure out who is who, trope-wise, without spending too much time on that. This left a lot of time for the fun, and gory, kills, the amusing banter between Chuck and Sam, and also to have a few scenes where patrons of Chuck’s shop would sometimes comment on the running discussion that she and Sam are having about what he should do. Bottom line, the focus was always on what makes this story special and that was the right call.
You Might Be The Killer isn’t a perfect movie. The pacing slows down a bit at around the ¾ mark and there could have been a few more twists in the narrative but those issues don’t bother me too much. I generally am not a huge fan of horror comedies, usually I don’t think that they blend the genres well and then you just end up with a movie that is sometimes funny and sometimes scary, but You Might Be The Killer blends horror and comedy so naturally that I almost can’t believe so many other films struggle with it. Really this is a must watch for fans of 80s slashers and I can’t recommend it enough to fans of the genre. Also the theme song is pretty fantastic, so bonus points for that!
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