Shudder Saturday: You Might Be The Killer (2018)

You Might Be The Killer starts off with a camp counsellor (Sam, played by Fran Kranz) escaping from a killer and hiding in a cabin. It's a standard slasher movie moment. Sam is covered in blood, he's scared, and he's miles and miles from anyone who can help him. Thankfully, he is able to phone a genre-literate friend (Chuck, played by Alyson Hannigan) who he hopes can help him get out of the situation alive. As Sam tries to remember the events that led him to this moment, filling in blank spots that he assumes stem from his recent trauma, Chuck eventually points out that a lot of the evidence would suggest that, well, he may actually be the killer. Sam doesn't seem like the killer type though, so just what HAS happened?

Now this is how you do this kind of thing. After being slightly disappointed this year by Tragedy Girls and Dead Shack, among others, I sat down to watch You Might Be The Killer with low expectations. I hadn't heard any buzz about the movie and the summary was in line with what I have just written above. Well, there should be some buzz for this one. It's a cracking little horror comedy that stuffs every scene with fun references, twists the slasher movie tropes in ways that are fun and inventive, and doesn't forget to deliver some good gore gags along the way.

Director Brett Simmons, who also co-wrote the film with Covis Berzoyne and Thomas P. Vityale (it's only the first or second feature screenplay for most of them), does a fantastic job of keeping everything feeling as if it belongs in the slasher movie subgenera, even as things start to twist and turn. Having previously let me down with Husk (a scarecrow horror movie that some others may enjoy more than I did), Simmons isn't someone I had on my radar to keep an eye on, career-wise, but I'll certainly be looking forward to whatever he does after this.

It helps that I quite like both Kranz and Hannigan, and I appreciate that not everyone will. They both do well here, with the former a bag of tension and nervous energy (even in the flashbacks to pre-massacre scenes) and the latter amusingly unflappable throughout while offering advice on the phone during her work shift. Brittany S. Hall, Jenna Harvey, and Bryan Price are also very good, playing three of the more memorable camp counsellors who may or may not survive to the end credits.

If you're like me, someone who likes both the leads and doesn't mind meta humour, then it's hard to see you not enjoying this. The bodycount being shown onscreen may seem like one unnecessary, cutesy, detail too much, but it's not just a gag, it's a smart way to immediately let viewers know when things are happening, given the playful, non-chronological structure of the screenplay.

Pair this up with The Final Girls and you have a very entertaining double feature. Enjoy.

8/10

Anyone who enjoys this should also pick up this movie.
Americans can pick up another meta slasher here.

Husk (2011).

Scarecrows are scary. The clue is in the name. That’s why they can make effective characters in horror movies. Just check out the brilliant Dark Night Of The Scarecrow or even that freaky, fantastic moment in House Of 1000 Corpses.

Which brings us to the failure that is Husk, written and directed by Brett Simmons. Some people have enjoyed the movie and I can only assume that it’s thanks to the inherent creepiness of scarecrows (and, admittedly, one or two moments of genuine creepiness stuck in the middle of the dross).

Husk tells the story of a bunch of kids who crash their car and end up trying to get help. They head for a house that they can see in the middle of a cornfield but it turns out that there is danger hidden behind those rows of corn. A creepy old house in the middle of nowhere. Creepy scarecrows that seem a lot livelier than they should be. It all adds up to prime horror material.

Or, at least, it should.

Writer-director Simmons takes any potential and squanders it with a cast of characters making stupid decisions (and played by people who don’t do enough to make themselves all that appealing), the inclusion of one of the group suddenly having psychic visions so that we can all find out just how this situation arose and a number of moments and plot devices that draw comparisons to other, better movies.

C.J. Thomason is the only cast member who comes out of everything relatively unscathed. Wes Chatham is hampered by playing an idiot, Devon Graye has to deal with those psychic visions, Tammin Sursok is simply the one female of the group and Ben Easter doesn’t have enough screentime to make much of an impression.

Thankfully, the scarecrows are scary when shown onscreen and there is at least one decent idea in the script that manages to elevate a couple of scenes to something bordering on the very good.

It’s just not enough though.

4/10. 

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