Office Killer

A mousy wallflower accidentally kills a co-worker and suddenly realizes her life would be better without some of these fools in her life and goes on a killing spree, murdering several people in her office. Carol Kane gets a chance to shine as the lead character in this and does a great job creating such a unique and bizarre woman. Molly Ringwald is also a lot of fun as the office gossip. Some of the dark humor might not amuse those looking for a straightforward horror film, but I found it really delicious.

This movie is great for John Waters fans. It's incredibly campy. If you're looking for horror, you won't really find it here, though it is a bit gory. I believe that this movie was intended to be ridiculously bad. At the time I saw it, my friend and I were both temps and the over-wrought workplace melodramas and vocabulary really resonated with us. Carol Kane was great, and Molly Ringwald was as I've never seen her before -- a caricature of herself. I look forward to Cindy Sherman's next picture.

***SPOILERS*** Hard to take black-comedy that grosses itself out long before the ending credits. Mousey and introverted magazine proofreader Dorine Douglas,Carol Kane,is the most effective worker at the office. When it comes down the grapevine that there's going to be a major change-over at the magazine Dorine as well as most of the staff are sent home to do the work and e-mail it in via a new computer system that being installed.

Dorine looking harmless and nerdy has a deep seeded and unstable violent streak in her and it's this event that eventually bring it out to the surface with murderous results. Not wanting to be at home with her infirmed mother Chalotta, Alice Drummond,and away from her job and fellow workers at the office slowly turns Dorine's sick thoughts into violent actions and it's a quirk of fate that sets it all into motion.

Quietly and secretly killing off her fellow workers at the magazine Dorine hides their bodies in her basement to keep her company. While all this was going on Kim, Molly Ringwald,a writer at the magazine becomes suspicious of Dorine not really knowing whats she doing but that she's somehow trying to get her fired from the job.

Dorine besides murdering her fellow workers is greatly disturbed with Kim who, besides being more popular, seems to be on to her and about to uncover what Dorine's really up to. There's also office manager Norah Reed, Jeanne Tripplehorn who Dorine feels has been embezzling the magazine coffers and is responsible for what's been happening there.

Trying to murder Kim in a dark and empty stairway Kim gets away but is later fired for accusing "sweet and innocent" Dorine of trying to kill her. Norah who befriends Dorine, because her timely article saved the magazine from folding, invites her out to lunch. It's then when she's knocked out in the parking lot by her and brought back to Dorines basement and locked in with all the other stiffs.

Kim getting in touch with Norah's boyfriend Danial, Michael Imperioli, to warn him about how unstable Dorine is as well as Norah being alone with her that afternoon. This has has him driving to the Douglas house looking for her only to find that Kim was right about Dorine, dead right, and that he and Norah were soon to pay the price for not listening to her.

Strange but interesting and not for everyones tastes "Office Killer" takes a while to get off the ground but once it gets going you can't really take your eye off it.

Carol Kane as Dorine is her usual quite and passive self at first but slowly goes postal as the pressure of her job, and putting up with her nagging mom, gets to her and drives Dorine over the brink. We also get an insight of Dorine's relationship with both her mom and dad Peter Douglas, Eric Bogosian,in a number of flashback sequences. The flashbacks indicate that she not only was sexually abused by Peter when she was a young girl but was also responsible for the car accident that took his life, and ended up crippling her mom for life. Which may have well been the reason for her distorted mental state as an adult.

Don't ever fool around with Dorine Douglas! She will make sure you will pay for whatever you do to her!

"Office Killer" is a film, judging from most comments submitted to this forum, that deserved better. Cindy Sherman, the director, shows she can deliver a good movie. The film was written by Ms. Sherman and it appears Todd Haynes, a good director himself, helped with the dialog, although he is uncredited.

We don't understand, at the beginning, what is Dorine's motivation for doing what she does, but the key to comprehending what's wrong with her is revealed in flashbacks that shows her as a teen ager when some traumatic events occurred involving her parents. Dorine has been dealt a bad blow from life and her reactions, although extreme, seem to be typical of someone that has been deeply scarred.

The film works because of the wonderful Carol Kane who does some of the best work of her career. Ms. Kane transforms herself into this weird Dorine, who is the butt of all jokes at the magazine where she works. What triggers her spiral unraveling is the downsizing the company is going through that will render her a part timer, losing, no doubt, a good deal of her earnings.

The supporting cast is up to task under Ms. Sherman's direction. Molly Ringwald, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Barbara Sukowa, Michael Imperioli, David Thornton and Alice Drummond, among others, respond well to the director's instructions.

One wishes good luck to Ms. Sherman with future films because she is not afraid, to show it all for the viewer's enjoyment.

This is a great horror/comedy.Its got a great plot,a great cast who gives great performances including Molly Ringwald(Teaching Mrs.Tingle,The Breakfast Club),Carol Kane(Jawbreaker,Adams Family Values)& Jeanne Tripplehorn(The Firm,Waterworld).This Movie is funny and a little scary if you watch it in the dark.See this Movie!