ONE LAST KILL
2004
Written and Directed by Rusty Williams
A.K.A. Choco gets bonafied!
PlotAh, memories... looking back, I almost can't believe it's been nearly a year since I opened up shop here at TISYUTUS, yet here we are. This review marks a milestone of sorts for me, as it happens to be the first time that a filmmaker has directly approached me to review his film. A not unbrave gesture, considering that I've proven myself to not pull punches when it comes to low-budget independant films (unless of course your company begins with a "T" and ends with a "ROMA", of course.) Yet, I am happy to review any film sent my way, as long as I don't have to pay for it. Anywho, on with the film. We open on a cable access program which is a roundtable discussion by three psychologists. Their topic of discussion is Curtis Starks (writer/director Williams,) a man on death row that was supposed to be executed minutes before the program aired. The day before, he was presented with an opportunity to get everything off his chest so to speak, and atone for his life. He was put in a room alone with a few cameras, and asked simply to talk about what he wished. We see this footage, broken up by commentary and opinions of the three doctors, one of which had already had frequent contact with Curtis, and is much more sympathetic to his ideas. And controversial ideas they are. Curtis shows deep intellegence behind his physically imposing firgure while he claims that he had no influence on his violent behaviors but himself. He's just messed up is all. He feels all his killings were justfiable outbursts of his viscious temper, each of which he describes in lurid detail. He believes in a just and good God, yet is in strong favor of the death penalty, and in fact thinks it's not used enough today. All of this is of course met with lively and arrogant debate by the shrinks, which only continue with intensity after the shocking conclusion of the tape wherein Curtis grants the camera audience to "one last kill", his own. He appears then to slit his wrists and commit suicide on camera.
Then the debate is interrupted when Curtis suddenly appears from behind the backdrop. The movie then dramatically shifts gears for its second half, as Curtis holds the three professionals and the lone cameraman in terror, playing psychological games with them, attempting to break their pompous minds... I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this film when I watched it, expecting a poorly-acted, direct-to-video trash-fest. Instead I got a solid pot-boiling psycho-thriller which uses its low-budget medium to effect a sense of realism. The lack of music, the sparse set, dialogue that almost feels improvised, and an extremely low tech level all add up to giving the distinct impression that you really are watching a late-night cable access show, which brings the viewer into a much dirtier sense of awareness about watching the footage. At several points Curtis even addresses the viewer directly, bringing into question their voyeristic impartiality, as well as the abject moral superiority that watching affords. On the surface of this movies is a solid psychological thriller that reminds me a little of the segment "Cut" directed by Chan-wook Park in the film "3...extremes", in its viciousness, yet underneath lies a remarkably keen treatise on the detatchment that we as viewers comfortably settle into. Even the cover, with Curtis' sneering face, and the slogan "who says there's nothing good on public access?" seem to brashly demand that we find this subtext inside the film. |
RatingI give One Last Kill:
Four Rotting Shambling Corpses out of Five |