Killer Book Club

Originality: zero points. But hey, if you read the synopsis and behold the film poster of "Killer Book Club", and you are still secretly hoping to see an original and unpredictable slasher mystery, then I am sorry to announce there's something very wrong with your expectation management. "Killer Book Club" - or "El Club de los Lectores Criminales" as it sounds much cooler in Spanish - delivers exactly what it promises: pretty & posh, but empty-headed teenagers getting brutally slashed by a freak in a rudimentary clown's mask. Too insulting for your IQ? Please watch "Poor Things" or "The Substance" instead.

This sick Netflix puppy takes its inspiration from the two biggest (not necessarily the best) horror blockbusters of the 1990s, namely "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer". A group of (fake) campus friends plan to scare the bejesus out of a pervy teacher who went #MeToo on a student, but their prank naturally results in a gruesome death. Immediately after the mandatory "I swear I'll never tell anyone!" sequence, the group finds themselves pursued and relentlessly killed by someone with a mask and a mountaineers' ice axe. Will you hope & pray for someone in the club to survive this horrible ordeal? Not particularly...

Your first guess for the killer's identity will probably already the right one. Every "twist" in the script is laughably predictable and even the finale is blatantly copied from the aforementioned 90s flicks. Don't think. Don't get annoyed. Simply enjoy the gore.

Stereotypical friends, all members of a horror book club, are sworn to protect an unfortunate secret; a deadly secret. A secret that causes their pursuit by a murderer thirsting for revenge.

"El club de los lecotres criminares (Killer Book Club, KBC)" is a slasher film with a nebulous theme. The film mentions fear of clowns, coulrophobia, but none of the stereotypical friends have such a fear; the film also permeates the idea of "stolen" stories, but neither themes feel strong enough in the film. In the end, KBC just tells a generic horror story with a serial killer who has superficial motives.

The premise of 'I know what you did last summer' but with every other story beat taken from 'Scream'.

Scream subverted the classic slasher movies of the 90s. This movie leans more into the literary world but doesn't capitalise on it. Doesn't help that the caracters are just generally obnoxious. They mentioned the killer clown phenomenon but didn't explore it beyond the mere mention of it, it could've leaned into the mass hysteria aspect of it more. I'm really disappointed since spanish indie movie makers tend to have a better grasp on what makes horror good.

Just watch Scream instead it hold up better.

The movie tries to pretend to be a "Spanish version" of Scream but it does not work.

The characters are so corny and not interesting, that you are just waiting when every one of them is killed.

There is no atmosphere there that could hold your attention, despite all the flaws in the movie.

The script tries to copy the original Scream step by step.

Acting is so terrible, that you think that every one of these Spanish actors is an amateur who was accidentally invited to the set.

And the ending is,,,one of the worst endings in slashers. So, instead of this, it's better to rewatch the whole Scream trilogy.

Spanish-language riff on Scream and other '90s meta horror takes most of its best ideas from other movies. It keeps things from getting entirely stale by tweaking the formulas a bit, although there's very little original or unexpected. Attempted jump-scares are banal and predictable. The biggest horror here is the protagonist's haircut, which is clearly the work of a disturbed sadist with an irrational vendetta. The person playing the protagonist seems like a lovely person and a fine actress, but good grief: whoever cut her hair is a deranged butcher with an intrinsic hatred of all that is decent and holy.