A pair of comic book writers begin to notice scary similarities between the character they created and horrific real-life events.
In recent years, actor Jay Baruchel has done what many actors do throughout their careers, turned his hand to directing. In 2017, he directed Seann William Scott in “Goon: Last of the Enforcers,” the sequel to the 2011 hit, ”Goon.” With “Random Acts of Violence,” he takes on the horror genre and while the overall premise is intriguing, unfortunately, Baruchel bites off more than he can chew and we are left with a movie that starts off promisingly but then takes a nosedive in the film’s last act.
Todd Walkley (Jesse Williams) is a comic book writer and the creator of ‘Slasherman,’ a graphic comic book that is based on the exploits of a real serial killer who unleashed his reign of terror in a small American town between 1987 and 1991 and then completely disappeared. Todd, fascinated by Slasherman, has been very successful with his comics but now he is at the end, ready to write his final issue so he can move on to new areas of his career as he feels the morbid and gruesome killings he creates in his stories, are taking a mental toll on him.
Along with his girlfriend Kathy (Jordana Brewster), his publisher Ezra (Jay Baruchel), and his girlfriend Aurora (Niamh Wilson), they head off to the small town where the real killings took place, with Todd hoping for some semblance of inspiration with his writer’s block. While there, they are made aware of new killings that have recently transpired, and when it comes to their attention that the killer is utilizing some of the horrendous and grisly methods Todd revealed in his stories, they set out to try and track him down to prevent him killing any more people.
When they chance upon an assault on a family one night on a lonely country road by a man wearing a welder’s mask, similar to the description of the original killer, he turns on them and shoots their car up, rendering it inoperative. Now they must band together and try to outsmart the Slasherman unless they want to end up as the next group of victims and succumb to a barbaric and savage death.
I really enjoyed the premise herein. The story of a young writer who becomes fascinated with a real-life serial killer who has vanished from the public consciousness, and continues his crazed killings in comic book form, only for the killer to resume his carnage based on said comics books, is not something I have come across before and while Baruchel appears in the film too, his direction is what impressed me the most. Beautifully-framed shots, his use of abrupt and unexpected appearances by the masked killer, and a sense of dread that permeates into the scene before anything happens, were all used to great effect, it’s just a pity the finale turned into a surreal affair, where you never knew if Todd was dreaming everything or imagining it, and by the time the final credits crawl up the screen, you find yourself rolling your eyes at the absurdity of it all.
“Random Acts of Violence” shows that Baruchel, the director, has a promising career behind the camera should he ever decide to go full-time in that direction, and while he is also a competent actor, I am now intrigued to see more of his directorial proficiency. The cast is engaging overall, from the four leads to the supporting actors, and the occasional glimpse of bloodshed, which is kept to a bare minimum and works as a result, is expertly handled and presented in such a way that you see only what you need to see, no more, no less. The old adage, “less is more,” most certainly applies here. While I enjoyed these aspects, in the end, the film is let down by an insipid finale that takes everything that came before it and wipes itself clean of it. That’s a shame because this movie had the resourcefulness to become a cult classic.
Available on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD, and Digital HD February 16th
