Office Killer

lame flick tries to be campy but comes off as stupid and inane with a dopey script that never works and it has terrible acting i did not find anything amusing in this Carol Kane gives a decent not a memorable but decent performance not worth it *1/2 out of 5

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.

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.

The first question that would come to mind would be whether Carol Kane could play a psycho successfully. And after seeing this film, I would have to say I still don't know because the very tame screenplay didn't allow her to be a well developed psychotic, nor did it allow any other sort of development for any other aspect of this film.

The storyline here is very typical. It involves Carol Kane (with very odd penciled in eyebrows) as an awkwardly mousy, hardworking magazine editor in a drab and depressing looking office building where she gets picked on daily. Then, without any time wasted, the inevitable psycho switch gets flipped and she starts killing off her coworkers.

I know that may sound to most like your typical fun slasher, but in fact, it can't even be considered a slasher. Actually, I really don't know what genre to categorize this film in because it dips it's toes in a couple different sub-genres without ever fully concentrating on any one area, therein lying the problem. The resulting film just doesn't quite work. At the start, it seemed to be heading into satire territory with office politics and such, but quickly falls flat because of a major lack of humor. As it went on, it then seemed I was in for a slasher, but all of the murders take place off screen, giving us no chase sequences, creative deaths or gore. Then I expected it to take a turn into suspense, but was left with no tension or any sort of character development whatsoever, so I never cared for anyone or anything enough to ever get involved in the storyline. The writers just didn't seem to know what they really wanted, which kind of left the final product in limbo. And it's pretty disappointing because the photographer turned director, Cindy Sherman, seemed to have talent and would have benefited greatly if it were a straight up thriller.

So what were we meant to feel during this film? It wasn't smart, funny, thrilling or even bloody. Were we supposed to hate and fear Kane? Or were we supposed to root for her? The whole film felt just as awkward as she looked and felt just as drab and boring as the office building looked, which leaves us with no reason to ever want to visit. I would compare this to later films, such as Love Object and the Willard remake, both of which used the same plot techniques, yet executed them in a much more entertaining fashion. Office Killer isn't a terrible film. I give the director and cast credit for trying. But it's just so lifeless that I can't recommend you wasting your time with it.

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!