Too much depravity in 'The Killer Inside Me'

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Cast: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Elias Koteas

Cert: 18

Jim Thompson’s noir novel from the 1950s becomes Winterbottom’s noir film set in the 1950s in a small Texas town … and in the head of Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford (a suitably creepy Affleck).

It is a study in sadism since Ford in seen to be from the outset a psycho who delights in inflicting brutal pain on women.

Sent to drive prostitute Joyce Lakeland (Alba) from town he is struck by her mesmerising beauty, and shows it by thrashing her with his belt.

Meanwhile there’s his high school sweetheart Amy (Hudson) and she isn’t treated too well either.

The problem lies in the immediate revelation that Ford is such a cold, cruel nutter who knows all the tricks to cloak his perverted secret; there is little direction for the plot to take us in.

It’s certainly an atmospheric film but overloaded with sexual depravity while trying desperately to take a look at the nature of evil, at the killer in all of us.

Star Rating: 3/5