Office Killer
Office Killer (1997) by first-time director and photographer "Cindy Sherman", impresses more than perhaps it should, thanks mostly to its ingenious blend of high power dramatics, macabre humor, and a new twist or two on a time-worn formula. What compensates for the basic amateurishness of this movie is a brilliant performance by "Carol Kane" as the deranged Dorine Douglas and several harrowingly suspenseful murder sequences that leave audiences grabbing for their seats. Add an atypical ending, avoiding the easy cliché of the tagged-on-moral-to-the-story, and you have the characteristics of a fresh outlook on the much-exploited slasher/thriller genre, familiar to audiences since "Alfred Hitchcock"s days, but this time with a woman performing the killings. The comic touches add a dimension of irony and paradox to the revolting sights of random slaughter and decomposing bodies, intensifying an awareness of madness loosened upon innocent bystanders.
Dorines metamorphosis occurs without warning, with the suddenness of an eruption. One night at the office, she is called upon to do late work, her computer breaks down and she asks the help of a co-worker, Gary Michaels (David Thornton), who is electrocuted while trying to fix the wires. Dorine dials 911, but hangs up when the call is answered. She places the corpse on a cart, rolls it down to her car, loads it in her trunk, and takes it home, placing it in her furnished basement (we dont see the body until later). Then, seemingly without reason, she goes into a murder spree. She kills Virginia by poisoning her inhaler tube, taking the second corpse to her basement, placing it on a sofa, next to Garys. Then comes the turn of two young girl scouts who arrive at her door to sell cookies. The young girls join the other corpses in the basement, Dorine seen eating the cookies with relish while working on her new laptop. Intriguingly, she sends messages from Gary to the remaining office workers, implying he is alive and has left the office or his wife. There are three more murders before the movie ends, all planned with cool design and seeming absence of malice. The last scene shows Dorine, after her mothers death, setting fire to her basement, then, sporting a blond wig, driving away in her car, circling a newspaper ad with her pencil for an office job, a look of triumph in her face.
External links
Categories: 1997 films