Dismemberment “Killer” is the spiritual successor of the tapes, which are, in fact, a kind of mystical slashers: on the one hand, we have all the components of films of this genre (teens, a murderer either in a mask, or simply ugly and, in fact, the massacre itself), on the other hand, there is also a paranormal element in the plot. The most striking representatives of this genre are the seventh part of the series “Friday, the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street”, well, its ideological successors can be considered more modern films “Entertainment” and “Dismemberer”, still known under its original name “Colobos”. The latter with the film “The Killer” of the 82nd year is also related to the fact that the main character is a girl who sees strange dreams in which she escapes from a maniac, and then this maniac begins to pursue her in reality.
The picture perfectly plays on the atmosphere and coolly combines a light touch of mysticism, almost weightless, and split components, which are given much more time here - all the murders are very cruel and bloody, with an abundance of interestingly made man-made special effects. At the same time, the tape in its first half is still trying to play a kind of detective, without showing us the face of the maniac and trying to confuse us in every possible way, although from the prologue we already guess what awaits us.
The maniac is shown only at the end, and here this, in principle, serves as an additional plus to the atmosphere of the film and the disclosure of the characters of its characters. The murderer himself turned out to be very spectacular - makeup is excellent and very frightening, and the killer himself here is more likely from a galaxy of freaks of the tapes "Turn the wrong way", "The hills have eyes" or "Road monster" than from a cohort of maniacs who look like ordinary people.
Technically, the picture is pleasantly made, even for its very modest budget: the direction is leisurely, but not boring, the intrigue persists throughout the film, the camera plans are very smooth, and in scenes of violence, the camera concentrates entirely only on the massacre taking place in the frame. The music corresponds to the picture and increases tension. Acting work is not outstanding, but not talentless - especially since the main roles here are not quite teenagers, but rather just young actors, already quite experienced.
When watching the film, images from the more famous masterpieces of the genre pop up – the classic Nightmare on Elm Street, where Freddie also killed his victims in his sleep, or I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, where the main characters also escape the killer on the island, unable to leave due to the beginning of the rainy season. Also comes to mind the masterpiece of Agatha Christie “Ten Negroes” because the plot is built in a similar way. And, of course, when you realize that all these works described above (except for “Negrotes”, of course) were shot much later “Killers”, I want to once again praise the picture of J. S. Cardone: hardly Craven was inspired specifically by her, but she, nevertheless, made a noticeable contribution to the development of mystical slashers.
As a result, we have quite a high-quality horror with a thick atmosphere of horror and hopelessness, an excellent main villain and a worthy plot. If you really find fault, what to do, of course, do not want, then you can complain about a certain tightness of the tape closer to the end - the whole film is rather leisurely, but in the end I already wanted some drive. In the rest - very decent and will certainly like the fans of the genre.
Good night!
9 out of 10
