Search - The Killer Within Me on DVD

BRUTAL AND SADISTIC

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 05/19/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This film was brought to life by the former acting brothers Jesse and Alan Vint. It's a low-grade but intensely presented treatise on the nature of evil. A prominent writer has written books supporting the belief that evil is not inherent, but is created by social standards. He believes that criminals have the ability to be reformed, and it is this premise that gets him into real big trouble. The film opens with a narrative by a prisoner who is seeking parole, saying he feels he has "a mission to go out and help others before they end up like him." Well, not more than an hour and a half after his parole is granted, we see him dragging a dead body on the back of a car, and torturing a young couple. He places the male in the trunk of the car with a deranged dog, and then he stabs the girl. This obvious sociopath's parents seek the famous writer to help them with their son, but not telling him the truth about him. So young psycho is greeted warmly by the author, but it isn't too long before the boy is up to his old tricks and things spiral into a nightmarish conclusion for the writer and his sexy daughter.
THE KILLER WITHIN ME is brutal in its depiction of senseless and mindless violence, but it also supports the theory that evil may be inbred, and no matter how society tries to help these deviants, there is little that can be done. Corbin Timbrook who plays the author tries to be tough and compassionate, but his limited thespian skills don't give credence to this machismo. William Benton as the psycho is gleefully sociopathic, reminding me a little of Mark Wahlberg in his younger days. Stacie Moss as the daughter Stacy is appropriately naive and her gullibility isn't predicted so it comes out of nowhere, hurting her performance some. The movie says it is inspired by true events, but I don't recall any famous novelists doing what happens in the climax, but maybe I just didn't hear about it? At any rate, THE KILLER WITHIN ME survives its inadequacies and is a pretty effective thriller."