I Am Not A Serial Killer
Ireland | UK 2016
Written by Christopher Hyde & Billy O’Brien
Directed by Billy O’Brien
Watched on 27.09.2016

“I Am Not A Serial Killer” was entertaining enough. It wasn’t exactly a highlight, but I’ve seen far worse. And it managed to make me at least a little bit curious about the YA-novel-series that it was based on, which is always a plus when it comes to adaptations like this.

Given the fact that I went into the movie almost completely blind, the supernatural angle threw me off at first. I expected a more down-to-earth kind of thriller. However, at least said revelation came early enough to give me plenty of time to come to terms with it. I also quite liked the main protagonist. Yes, John Wayne Cleaver definitely has issues, and at first I wasn’t sure which way the story would go. But putting him into conflict with this monster ultimately forced him to deal with his problems in a way that he didn’t before, which is something that I definitely enjoyed. I also liked that they didn’t shy away from showing him as deeply troubled as they did, for fear of the audience losing its sympathy for him. Ok, granted, they did so when it comes to a certain act which would have been hard to forgive, but otherwise, they didn’t make any compromises in that regard. And I thought that it was great that John learned the identity of the killer early on, which gave this a nice “Columbo”-like dynamic – which only intensified after Crowley also figured out who was onto him, which led to a couple of quite intense moments. Christopher Lloyd gives a truly creepy, disturbing and menacing performance, and Max Records was really great too. Finally, I enjoyed the unusual way the story ended. However, overall, “I Am Not A Serial Killer” just isn’t all that special. It’s a nice, entertaining movie, with a couple of cool scenes and ideas, but it never really managed to thrill and excite me.
6/10

IMDB