Years ago, Ken Boyd (Kevin Corrigan) was beaten and tortured by jocks from his high school in revenge for his having created a comic book poking fun at them. Recently released from a mental hospital, Boyd works at the local fast food joint and lives with his mother Ruth (Karen Black), who is dating the town sheriff, Walt Fuller (Barry Bostwick).
Amy Wheeler (Ariel Gade) is 11 years old, precocious and frustrated with her born-again mother (Janie Haddad). Seeking a father figure, she tracks down her biological dad – Boyd – and strikes up a relationship with him. Boyd meanwhile seems to have found something approaching love with local oddball Stephanie (Lucy Davis), and just when things seem to be going so well for him, people in their small town begin to turn up very dead indeed…
Some Guy Who Kills People, directed by Jack Perez (Wild Things 2, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus), written by Ryan A Levin (Scrubs) and executive produced by the brilliant John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), is an amiable little film with a great deal of charm. Levin’s screenplay – his first feature – certainly bodes well for future projects. The plot meanders a little and is slightly predictable at times (although this is hardly unusual for the slasher genre), but the dialogue is original and the jokes both plentiful and fresh.
Performances from the B-list dream-team cast are excellent. Kevin Corrigan plays depressive Boyd like a potentially psychopathic Ron Livingston (think Office Space in particular), with plenty of deadpan and just enough liveliness to keep from tipping into melodrama. Ariel Gade plays that quirkily mature girl-child type (cf God Bless America, Little Miss Sunshine, Gilmore Girls) – a stock-ish character in danger of becoming the daughter-figure equivalent of the Manic Pixie Dream-Girl – but fortunately is fresh and charismatic enough to be enjoyable.
As Ruth Karen Black, a veteran of the horror and thriller genres (and probably the only actor to have worked with both Alfred Hitchcock and Rob Zombie), starts out caustic and unlikeable (a fault of the script rather than the actor), but thaws as the film progresses – mostly through her interactions with Walt and Amy – and showcases a seldom-tapped gift for comedy. Lucy Davis is always excellent value, and here blessed with a character more interesting and complex than usual, although her screen time could have been bumped up – one wants to see more of her.
The film ultimately belongs, however, to the delightful Barry Bostwick. The same drollery that imbued Mayor Randall Stevens in Spin City with both gravitas and jocularity is all on show here. His banter with his deputy (Eric Price) is priceless and his off-colour joshing with Boyd about his own and Ruth’s sex life are part and parcel of Bostwick’s seemingly effortless brand of dry comedy, but when matters turn serious he is every bit as good. It probably helps that Walt is given most of the film’s best lines, but Bostwick makes a meal of the script and doesn’t waste a morsel.
It’s no Shaun of the Dead, but Some Guy Who Kills People is better than Severance and definitely up there in the horror-comedy stakes. Blackly comic, sometimes chilling, oddly touching and always entertaining, it is bound to worm its way into your affections.
Read our interview with Barry Bostwick here.
Some Guy Who Kills People is in cinemas on 5 October and out on DVD on 8 October.
