If I were to judge a film by its title, then I might suspect Some Guy Who Kills People to be a little too knowing, a little too cool for school, and the ‘look at me, aren’t I clever’ opening title also tends to give that impression. And in a sense, I’d be right to think that, because this is certainly a very self aware film, playing with genre clichés who making it clear that it knows that’s what it’s doing. It could be a recipe for self-indulgent disaster. That it isn’t is a tribute to director Jack Perez, writer Ryan Levin and a personable cast who all manage to lift the film to another level.

Kevin Corrigan plays Ken Boyd, formerly institutionalised after a break down caused by torture at the hand of local bullies. Now back in his hometown, he’s working in a dead end job at an ice cream parlour, constantly harassed by his boss, belittled by his mother and picked on by the same bullies. When the bullies start turning up dead, it’s pretty obvious who is the most likely suspect.

If you’ve seen more than a handful of thrillers, you won’t be surprised to discover all is not what it seems. The fact that the film keeps the killer’s face off-screen is your main clue that Ken might be a red herring, and the only real questions left are whether or not Perez and Levin are playing a double-bluff, or – if not – who the actual killer is. I accurately guessed the answer very early on, and I imagine that a lot of you will too.

But that’s not really what’s important here. The film might be called Some Guy Who Kills People, but in a sense, the gory murders are a sideshow attraction to the real story, and this is where the film really excels. It’s a sweetly comic look at a dysfunctional individual being pulled back into society, unwillingly, as he forms a relationship with the daughter he’s never met, Amy (Ariel Gade), a rather precocious and pushy 11 year old who slowly drags him out of his shell and encourages him to date English émigré Stephanie (Lucy Davis). It’s this slow, funny and painful rehabilitation, and the loss of it when the evidence against him starts to pile up, that is at the heart of the film.

There are impressive supporting performances from Barry Bostwick as the laconic local sheriff and Karen Black as Ken’s mother, both bringing more humanity and roundedness to their parts than you might expect to find. Together with the chirpy but not annoying Gade and the closed-in Corrigan, they help deliver an unexpected charm to the story. Only Davis seems out of place, her character not really developed enough to be interesting, despite her best efforts.

Some Guy Who Kills People is a left-field gem that manages to juggle its two very different sides with aplomb. Fans of revenge-horror and slacker comedies should both find plenty to enjoy in this.

DAVID FLINT

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