This is all the more hilarious for being real, I suppose. Her mother is appalled by this notion. When Val does start killing people none of the death scenes are really that memorable and most of them take place off screen for the most part. She allows people to walk all over her. In like so many low budget independent films It has attitude and style in abundance thanks to Staten's sharp writing and confident directing as well as a great story together with a brilliant cast who all absolutly nail their roles. [6], The film, eventually titled A Serial Killer's Guide to Life, shot for two weeks across 28 locations[7] in Brighton and Sussex, England. This had a promising start, and it grew somewhat into its second act, but when it came time for the third act, it just wrapped up with a cop-out ending that had been done too many times before. Val makes her an offer to be Lou's life coach and is going along for the ride. Low budget film making at its level best. The various therapy sessions the pair of Lou and Val visit are all astonishingly real: back-to-nature, vibrational healing, rebirthing, and laughter all have their adherents, and after doing some reading up on each, it appears that the words and actions . In the play, the word refers to artificially created . It has a very interesting theme (which I won't spoil) that actually speaks for itself with very strong attention to detail, top performances and slick direction. Author Recent Posts Follow Me Adrienne Clark Adrienne is a writer and editor living in the rain clouds of Seattle. https://bit.ly/3iEQTqW, Theres Something Wrong with the Children has a lot more going on for it than your average creepy-kid #horror #movie. I'll be honest, I didn't enjoy the film's storyline all that much, but I thought the scenery and film crafting was excellent - well shot and edited. Set to be released in the US and Canada on iTunes and Digital HD on January 13, 2020, this film is the debut feature from Writer-Director Staten Cousins Roe and was produced by Forward Motion Pictures, which he runs alongside his wife Poppy Roe. She is a very sympathetic character and I found myself rooting for her for most of the movie. There, Lou describes a road trip of discovery she is taking the next day, and insinuates that Lou should join her. Being a single young woman who lives at home with her mother as basically a live in care taker , cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc. Lou and Val leave their car behind and take the couple's minivan. Val is attractive, tall, headstrong, a woman who knows who she is and is forth coming about it. Children at Play! A gun-wielding Val chases Lou to the edge of a cliff, and there they have a final meeting-of-the-minds as police sirens and a helicopter close in. It does have a great cast and all (which is probably its biggest strength), but overall, I just didnt think that it was anything special and I was left feeling more than a little underwhelmed after everything was said and done. Lou dreams of self improvement and a better life. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life is a 2019 British satirical horror road movie written, directed, co-produced and co-edited by Staten Cousins Roe in his feature-length directorial debut. There is a significant body count in this dark comedy. Kill off social media influencers, reality TV celebrities or Los Angeles Dodgers fans, and Id be right there with you. It was a fast and furious shoot, often getting one take and moving on. "A Serial Killer's Guide to Life" (2019 release from the UK; 80 min.) into the film, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. The two struggle, and Val is being overpowered when Lou kills the husband. Val and Lou, with how Roe and Brayben present the characters, complement each other perfectly. Although fairly predictable, the story still keeps you watching and wondering where this little journey will go next. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life accomplishes this task tenfold and is one of the funniest and most original British films in a long time. The likes of Killing Eve have shown even we British can engage in a gleeful embrace of the darker side of things. But moments later, when police arrive, Val seems to have vanished. https://modernhorrors.com/skinamarink-review. Sony generously agreed to let us use their F55 (the one used on The Crown), and many location owners gave heavy discounts to help support a local, independent film. In Message, a man leaves several voicemails on an ex-girlfriend's phone to gloat. After they do so, we see the dead bodies of Ben and the attendees, their heads bashed in. The basic plot kept reminding me of Michael Winterbottoms underrated Butterfly Kiss (1995). Betty, according to her mother, is a lawyer. Though Lou is at first seemingly ignorant to Vals murderous urges, before long she joins in the killing. As the pair set off after item 3 begins, a boom mic is clearly reflected in the windows of the car. When James Franco made his soap opera debut in 2009, it was as a serial killer named Franco on ABC's General Hospital. As the movie opens, Lou, a twenty-something who still lives at home with her miserable mum, is listening to a self-help/motivational tape while doing a beach walk on the southern coast of England. Sounds interesting, right? To have achieved this in just a 2 week shoot on a modest indie budget takes exceptional vision and talent so expect more gems from this excellent film making team. We all need a little help to become better people, right? She throws her food and then herself on the floor. nice but fake and terribly nonsense in this society. "[12], However, while Sep Gohrdani of the UK magazine VultureHound called it "an engaging, sharp, witty and darkly fun black comedy," he said it "doesn't quite live up to its full potential" because it "never manages to take the concept to the next level, and thus it remains watchable without being remarkable. A radio briefly mentions that a woman has been found murdered at a caravan park. At one of these seminars she meets Val (Poppy Rose) who is everything that Lou wants to be and is soon convinced to leave her life behind and join Val on the road. Tomiwa Edun . But how much you get out of it may depend on two things. He liked its "darkly humorous tone" that "nails the self-indulged attitudes and attributes of many a life-coaching element," and he "appreciated the dry tone and believable delivery from each actress, as well as the surrounding cast," but felt that, "The idea is a one-trick pony that doesn't truly evolve the premise beyond what's expected and becomes a rinse/repeat of therapeutic slayings that are visually stifled by repetitive cutaways and (sometimes) after-imagery of a corpse." Its the real deal. Part One, The 3 Best, and Only, Thanksgiving Themed Horror Movies, Top Ten Horror Films For the Holidays 2022 from HNN Presents & Bayview Entertainment, Marketing Macabre Must Read Book List for Halloween 2022, Top Ten Exclusives For 2022 from HalloweenCostumes.com. | Director/Screenplay Statin Cousins-Roe, Producers Giles Alderson, Poppy Roe, Statin Cousins-Roe & Charity Wakefield, Photography James Layton, Music Laurence Love Greed, Visual Effects Supervisor Anthony Brownmoore, Production Design Madelaine Leech. SYNOPSIS: Lou is a poor, pitiful woman that is obsessed with a self-help guru. I didnt think that things got particularly interesting until maybe the last 20 minutes or so and I am still not sure if I liked the big twist at the end or not as it reminded me of the ending of High Tension in a lot of ways (which I despised and feel ruined the entire movie for me). This needed to go deeper, darker.& it definitely needed a murderous, wilin' out montage scene. But when she looks again, the woman is gone. A Serial Killers Guide to Life is based on Roes 2013 much-acclaimed short film This Way Out. - My ' conspiracy theory', Straps you in and takes you on a bloody journey with Lou and Val, The UK's "Thelma and Louise" is quirky and entertaining, Started going places, but ended up at Nothingburger. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life sports a really feisty premise, but its modest execution is its ultimate demise. Apple TV & Privacy If youre interested in reading about a real serial killer, take a look at the following Edward Anderson written article: Harsh Light News revolves around entertainment news, social and political commentary. The husband stumbles onto the scene and tries to escape into the yard, but Val, wielding the knife, catches him. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life is structured in vignettes, each one corresponding to a platitude from Chuck Knoah's teachings. While it wasn't what I was expecting in terms of what I imagined a festival of that name would deliver, I was very glad to have seen it. They find him a pathetic wreck, going through a terrible divorce and about to be dropped by his publisher for having no new book ideas. A SERIAL KILLER'S GUIDE TO LIFE will be released on iTunes and Digital HD January 13, 2020. In 2013, Poppy Roe and her husband, Staten Cousins Roe, made a darkly comic short film, This Way Out, about a euthanasia clinic doing what it could to get more clients. Lou, in contrast to Val, is meekly awkward. It feels like the kind of horror-comedy which would rather invite you in for a nice cup of tea than horrify you. Val Stone: I think you might be the best client, Lou. Stuff happens. Despite this constant diet of positive affirmations, Lou seems paralyzed, unable to make meaningful change in her life. If you are a life-coach you won't like it! However, it is very entertaining. Production Company Forward Motion Pictures. Right from the beginning we're given an interesting protagonist (Lou) to follow and shortly after an equally deep and complex supporting character named Val. Unfortunately for Lou, Val's a serial killer. TV Shows. . A coming-of-age story . A Serial Killer's Guide to Life - ARROW A Serial Killer's Guide to Life Serial murder meets self-help in A Serial Killer's Guide to Life - a darkly satirical cross between Thelma and Louise and Sightseers from the creative team behind the award-winning short film This Way Out (Best Comedy, Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2013). A day later, at Val's invitation, Lou visits her at a caravan park. It deserves to become a cult classic. | Star: Katie Brayben, Poppy Roe, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Sarah Ball. Catherine Called Birdy. So this naturally limited my buy-in to the concept here. For, as the title suggests, Val is a psychotic if smart killer, who is specifically targetting those same gurus. The various therapy sessions the pair of Lou and Val visit are all astonishingly real: back-to-nature, vibrational healing, rebirthing, and laughter all have their adherents, and after doing some reading up on each, it appears that the words and actions taken by the films fictional therapists arent being exaggerated for laughs. Image: Alex Bailey/Prime Video. Not the witty and clever film people are making out, Is someone playing a joke viewers? Ben Lloyd-Hughes . Val calls Lou the best student she's ever had. The real highlight of the film is the interplay between Brayben and Roe. Even the stabs at the pitiful absurdities of self-help gurus wasn't nearly as compelling as it should or could have been; in that sense, the writing lacked inexcusably. Unfortunately, Val happens to be a serial killer and before you know it the bodies are piling up and Lou is soon way in over her head. But her mother's emotional abusiveness changes her mind. All that changes when she meets Val (Poppy Roe, The Big Finish), an ambitious life . I enjoyed Roes performance, which does have much of the same failure to give a damn as Villanelle inEve. It is also possible to buy "A Serial Killer's Guide to Life" on Microsoft Store . She seeks escape from one self-help guru after another, spending her money on their books, DVDs and audio-tapes, though with little or no apparent positive results. And often these targets of the satire seem as though they are barn doors broad enough that they barely need to be spoofed. Whos watching? What A Serial Killer's Guide to Life attempts is a very tricky balancing act. Rarely does an independent film really strike cords on all levels but this truly takes the cake. There are plenty of murders and blood but it's not horrific or even violent. Along the way, Lou and Val drop in on numerous questionable self-help practitioners. A self-help addict unwittingly finds herself on a killing spree with her unhinged life coach. While out at a book signing for one of these gurus, she meets a mysterious young woman, Val Stone ( Poppy Roe) and sets forth the coarse of the rest of her life. The service requires full JavaScript support in order to view this website. The next stop is a "sonic vibration" retreat, where Lou and Val are the only two attendees of the husband-and-wife couple who run it at their large house. Lover of good beer, bourbon, and horror flicks. Lou Farnt: Did I? Lou is a poor, pitiful woman that is obsessed with a self-help guru. "A Serial Killer's Guide To Life follows Lou Farnt (Katie Brayben): a 30-something, . Tagged as: The movie really needs to buy into this concept considerably further, rather than gently nodding its head. Where the film does become more interesting is the twist where it reveals [PLOT SPOILERS] (with a certain ambiguity) that Poppy Roes Val is actually an imaginary companion/split personality in Lous head. Don't read any spoilers before watching or it will be a bit pointless to watch. film review, Not entertaining the story is boring and very predictable which I could of forgiven if the murders were creative or there had been some dark humour .in short they should of decided what kind of film they were making. You think you know, but you have no idea. On the other hand, the film promptly takes a far darker turn and ends up more in the territory of something like Ben Wheatleys darkly comedic Sightseers (2012), or perhaps even tvs The End of the Fucking World (2017-9). 02/09/2020 Almost pumping into a man walking in the opposite direction, she is immediately brought out of her bubble. 2020. I thought she did a wonderful job in the role and she is probably the highlight of the film in my opinion. Bravo Mr. Roe for doing just that, the writer, the producer, the director, damn even the editor, absolutely a gem that I would be proud to show anyone looking a good recommendation. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life (2019) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. The real highlight of the film is the interplay between Brayben and Roe. Lou has a mundane life and an overbearing control-freak of a mother (Sarah Ball) shed like to escape. Katie Braybens performance as Lou is all soft-spoken, people pleasing ineffectuality. [6], A trailer was released in January 2020. She is obsessed with bettering her life thanks to listening to a self-help guru that she is dying to meet in person. Note: not if, when. 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