With the impending release of Killer Me on DVD (July 29th, 2003! Egads, Versus comes out that same day!), I felt that I owed it to Zachary Hansen (it's talented director) to fix up this review. I recall the first time I watched Killer Me. I was extremely excited (Zachary was the first person to ever send me a screener in the mail for reviewing purposes) and I couldn't wait to put that tape into my VCR. Once the movie began though, I had my doubts, especially after the first five minutes or so. A variety of images bombarded my eyes and confused me utterly. But by the time the movie ended, I was in awe. Yes this movie is kind of artsy and yes it's strange at times, but for some reason, I liked it a lot! After two more viewings, it became clearer, and I came up with a possible cause for our main character's murderous urges.

You see, Joseph has frequent dreams and the occasional hallucination. From these visions, I reasoned that Joseph had an abusive father, who may have killed Rose, Joseph's mother. That would be enough to mess anyone up if you ask me. Joseph has one of these hallucinations in the film's opening and just so happens to pass a man in a park. The man calls out to Joseph, asking for money, and a cigarette. The last thing we see in this scene, is Joseph pulling a razor out of his back pocket. And let me put in a quick word about the razor while I'm at it (since it happens to be Joe's tool of choice). It's one of those old straight razors used in barbershops before man invented the disposable razor.

So that's one kill for Joseph but he stacks up two more that evening. As he prepares a delicious microwave dinner, Joseph looks out his kitchen window and sees an arguing couple in the next building. Things get heated and the guy smacks his girl across the face, and follows that by flipping off Joseph and yelling "F*ck you!" This must've brought back those past memories because Joseph kills the couple and ends up with a deep gash on his abdomen. The next day in college Joseph is followed around by Anna who finally gets up the nerve to talk to him as he studies in the library. Later, the akward little stalker basically asks Joseph out and even makes him dinner at his house on their first "date." They get to know each other better and Anna stays the night (yeah... you think you know where this is going buy you're wrong. She just sleeps over, no hanky panky involved.).

Things are going just great for Joseph. So great that he decides to buy Anna a present. He goes to a pet shop and buys her a female albino hamster. I'm not sure if any humor was intentional, but this scene made me chuckle. Joseph simply wants to buy a hamster but the pet store clerk makes it seem like a difficult task (you'll see what I mean when you get the the Memorable Lines section). As Joseph is about to make his final purchase, he watches as a young girl is smacked upside the head by her father. You know what that means folks; time to succumb to another murderous impulse! Joseph follows the slap happy father and tries to kill him several times. Each time however, Joseph's attempts are thwarted, so he finally gives up.

Cutting his losses (no pun intended), Joseph has Anna over for dinner again and presents her with her new pet! Anna is naturally overjoyed and Joe is visibly happy (especially after naming the cuddly rodent after his mother)! Could it be that his days of killing are over? Well... I really don't know. I do know that Joe soon slips into a deep psychosis. He was walking down a hiking trail and stopped to think for a few hours (those damned voices in his head were acting up again!) and as night falls, he witnesses a mugging/possible rape. So Joseph, seeing a woman in distress, leaps into action with his trusty razor right?! Wrong. (Yeah, exactly. WHAT?!) Instead, Joseph regresses into a child and curls up into a ball until daybreak. When he awakens, Joseph goes to visit the police station to confess his crimes. The detective Joseph speaks with is skeptical and tells him to get lost. Once he's home, Joseph discovers that his pet goldfish has died, and his last bit of sanity disappears.

Joseph locks himself in his home, doesn't go to work, and calls up Anna to tell her "it's over." During his breakdown, Joseph has a wide variety of hallucinations. He believes he sees the couple he killed next door so he covers his kitchen window. He also vividly sees the whole father abusing mother scenario, which ends with a younger version of Joseph being forced to slit his father's throat with the straight razor. Rose petals spout forth from the wound, adding to the surreal feel of the scene. (If you're confused by this description of the events, I apologize. It's really hard to put some of this into words.) An undetermined amount of time passes, and Anna goes to Joseph's house and walks inside. She finds him upstairs in the bathroom and discovers the nasty wound on his abdomen (but why are his jeans unbuttoned in this scene?!).

Anna runs downstairs to get some soap to clean Joseph's terribly infected gash. Joe soon follows with his straight razor handy. He goes and sits on the living room couch and quickly hides the weapon when Anna enters the room. Will Joseph pull out his razor? Will he kill Anna? Nope! Although he reaches for it a few times, he stops. Why you ask? Because Anna shows him one of her hamster's babies (which looks pretty much like a full grown hamster to me). Joseph's urge to kill vanishes, Anna puts her head on his shoulder and on that note, the movie ends.

It sounds like a strange movie (and at times it is) but it's very good. Though the budget for Killer Me was low, it hardly shows at all. And one thing that makes this movie stand out is the intense focus it has on Joseph and Anna. Every other character in the movie went unnamed and lacked any true depth. By doing that, there aren't any major distractions from the main characters, and unecessary subplots aren't developed. And on that note, the acting in this movie was quite good. George Foster (who by the way appeared in both Wayne's World movies) was perfect as the quirky and softspoken Joseph. And his co-star, Christina Kew, played her role as Anna with all the cuteness she could muster (and yes she pulls it off nicely). In closing, I really enjoyed this movie, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Zachary produces in the future. I can only begin to imagine what he'd be able to do with a larger budget. Ah yes, I can see it now... Killer Me Red (get it? Like color me red but with Killer Me... yeah I thought it was stupid too).