Some Guy Who Kills People

You can smell the involvement of John Landis in this production very early on. It hits just the right tone of slapstick horror, comedy and family drama.

Ken Boyd (Kevin Corrigan) has been in a hospital for the treatment of his depression and suicidal tendencies. When he gets out, he acquires a little job working in an ice-cream parlour (the advertising of which provides many chuckles). We get flashbacks of bullies at school torturing him. Then, back in the present, the bullies start to get killed with a modicum of gratuitous violence. Throw into the mix his daughter Amy (Ariel Gade - Dark Water), who has just found out where her dad lives, and you've got the recipe for gory death pie topped with tender fatherliness.

This film has many strengths. It is well made and well written. Most of the funny lines go to the Sheriff and Boyd's mum and there are enough to keep you laughing throughout (your sense of humour needs to be on the black side though). The main strength is the acting and relationship of the father and daughter. Corrigan is fantastic as a man coming from depression into a state where he feels more able to cope with life by the end. Gade is wise beyond her years and the relationship between her and her dad comes across as very real.

One fly in the topical cream is the inclusion of Lucy Davis as a love interest for Boyd. She was in The Office. She's irritating.

If you can stomach a small amount of gore and blood you will be rewarded with a funny and touching experience.

This movie totally surprised me in a good way. With the name of the movie, I thought that this was going to be one of those movies. Yeah, you know the kind I am talking about. Boy was I surprised when this movie was finished.

Despite having a super cheesy named, "Some Guy Who Kills People", then the movie really had a great storyline and it was really nicely executed. Plus the characters in the movie were really interesting, vibrant and full of personalities. And of course, the great cast really helped moving the movie along nicely.

The story is about socially-challenged Ken Boyd (played quite well by Kevin Corrigan) who has been released from a mental institution, and he is now living in a small rural community. Having been bullied by a bunch of people, Ken plans for the demise of his tormentors. Unforeseen, his estranged daughter shows up in his life after 11 years, and Ken is now also struggling to coming to terms with being a father.

"Some Guy Who Kills People" does have a great list of actors and actresses to its credit. As mentioned above, then Kevin Corrigan really did a great job in portraying the main character. And his daughter, played by Ariel Gade, really brought a lot of charisma and merriment to the movie. It was also great to see Barry Bostwick and Karen Black in their respective roles.

This is the type of movie that lets you slip into the storyline alongside the characters, because they are so nicely portrayed and have a lot of depth to their personalities. You quickly form bonds with characters and get carried away into the movie.

The movie is so wonderfully absurd and twisted that it is actually fun and a great treat to watch. The director, Jack Perez, really handled the balance between comedy and horror so well, and made it work so great, and the end result is a rather enjoyable movie that most likely will surprise most viewers.

If you haven't seen "Some Guy Who Kills People" yet, then you should treat yourself to it, because it is well worth a watch.

The Dexter series has paved the way nicely for some modern anti-heroes. It's OK to be a serial killer provided the people you kill are not nice people. The worse the crime, the more acceptable (on screen) it is to kill the criminal and the less guilty we can feel about enjoying the spectacle of their death.

So Some Guy Who Kills People rides along on similar rails and gives us someone we can both root for, be afraid of and concerned about all in one highly confusing package.

Kevin Corrigan plays unorthodox Ken Boyd, a depressive cartoonist recently released from the 'loony bin' into a world he doesn't understand. Clearly resident in the kind of small town community where everyone knows everyone else, Boyd lives with his sardonic mother (Karen Black) and works the only job he can get: slopping out ice cream at the local diner.

Ken keeps his head down and his mouth shut, but life has a way of intruding on his self-imposed cocoon in the form of his best friend Irv's unyielding encouragement to get out there and grab the bull by the horns, the attentions of beautiful English girl Stephanie (Lucy Davis) and Ken's long absent daughter of eleven years, Amy. This trio of distractions are merciless in their presence, drawing Ken away from his preferred mode of introspection and silence.

Character development is awesome, with young Ariel Gade hitting just the right level of chatty pre-teen and needy daughter vs vulnerable sweet kid and mini-charmer to win us over rather than put us off. Corrigan is effortlessly charismatic despite his apparent predilection for decapitating his enemies, and his rarity of lines (despite his presence in most scenes). Lucy Davis is a little too attractive and besotted to be believable, particularly as the first time she encounters Ken he is dressed up in a most unbecoming giant ice-cream costume. Davis also has a limited acting range, giving the same performance here as she gave in The Office and other American projects of late.

But Barry Bostwick is simply sublime as the eminently watchable Sheriff Walt Fuller and Karen Black puts in a great performance as the disillusioned chain-smoking mother with only the lowest expectations in her son.

Ultimately a moral warning about the perils of withdrawing and allowing the past to consume the present; thus missing out on the important things (like the parent/child relationship) Some Guy Who Kills People is a thought-provoking, beautifully crafted tale from beginning to end featuring some of the most comically subtle black humour you're ever likely to see on the big screen. You'll laugh, but you'll also hover on the edge of your seat. Mixing comedy with genuine drama is no mean feat and full credit should go to Perez, Levin and their wonderful cast for pulling it off with unparalleled aplomb.

Ken Boyd (Kevin Corrigan) seems like a regular guy in a regular dead-end job. However, while the job -ice cream parlor server / mascot- is awful, Ken himself has a terrible secret. He's haunted by a nightmarish incident from his past, when a group of town thugs put him through a torturous hell. Now, years later, these same goons start dying in gruesome ways.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Walt Fuller (Barry Bostwick) and his officers are on the case. In the midst of all this, someone enters Ken's life whom he never expected to see. Her name is Amy (Ariel Gade). She's pint-sized and about to change Ken's life forever.

SOME GUY WHO KILLS PEOPLE is a smart, wickedly funny, and refreshing take on the cat-and-mouse / serial killer / revenge movie. It works as a black comedy, a murder mystery, and, believe it or not, a touching father / daughter film! It has its poignant moments, which even tugged at this stone heart!

Corrigan is perfectly deadpan as the title character, and Ms. Gade provides the sunlight for an otherwise darkly comedic story. Bostwick makes a great, bumbling lawman, and Karen Black plays Ken's mom, Ruth, with her usual ease and grace. Lucy Davis takes on the part of Ken's suitably bewildered girlfriend.

A definite keeper...

Ken Boyd (Kevin Corrigan), a lonely man fresh out of the loony bin, sets out to kill those he deems responsible for his miserable life.

Since I did not know most of the people attached to this (besides Karen Black and executive producer John Landis), I did not know what to expect. I set my sights low, and came out with quite an impressed mind. This is not your typical slasher. It is oddly endearing and has just enough comedy and plot twists to really keep the audience interested.

Kevin Corrigan is superb, Barry Bostwick even better... but, of course, we must salute Ariel Gade in this breakout performance. She adeptly portrays the precocious 11-year old Amy, and is both likable and a good plot-carrier. Gade, even more than Corrigan, keeps the story going.

I have not yet checked out the special features, but would like to. I think they would greatly enhance my understanding and appreciation for this already pleasantly-surprisingly gem.