Matthew McConaughey's Crime Thriller From A Legendary Horror Director Is Essential Viewing On Netflix
by Witney Seibold · /FilmWilliam Friedkin's 2011 film "Killer Joe," based on the play by Tracy Letts, is one of the more disturbing, violent, raw-knuckle thrillers you may ever see. The late Friedkin, who had directed horror movies like "The Exorcist," "The Guardian," and "Bug," cracked out all of his most unsavory instincts for "Killer Joe," whipping out a film that will leave you feeling a little sick. But, you know, in a good way. Friedkin assembled a very, very impressive cast and walked them through a white trash nightmare of blood and raunch. It's pretty great. "Killer Joe" is currently on Netflix, and it's worth pausing your day to go watch.
Matthew McConaughey plays the title character, "Killer Joe" Cooper, a smooth, morals-free police detective who moonlights as an assassin in a black cowboy hat. He is hired by a dimwitted family, consisting of no-goodnik son Chris (Emile Hirsch), his none-too-bright father Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church), Chris' sister Dottie (Juno Temple), and Ansel's uncaring wife, Sharla (Gina Gershon). Chris is in debt to a local cocaine dealer, and the family all figure they can rid themselves of financial woes by killing Chris' off-screen mother and collecting on her life insurance.
But their plan goes wrong at every turn. Chris can't afford a down payment to Joe, for one, and Joe asks for Dottie to act as a servant instead. It's also worth noting that everyone is unbelievably stupid. Chris begins having second thoughts about hiring an assassin, but learns too late that Killer Joe has already completed the job. And, naturally, the money they hoped to get isn't easily forthcoming. This forces Joe to hate everyone in this awful family (except for Dottie) and manipulate and abuse them at his whim.
There is a scene with a chicken drumstick that ... well, it's humiliating.
Kille Joe is marvelously sick
William Friedkin carefully set up the trailer park Hell of "Killer Joe" for maximum misery. There is no city skyline. The skies are dark and stormy. People only ever watch monster truck shows. No one can think straight. Everyone gets beaten up, bruised, and bloodied. "Killer Joe" is set in an angrier version of the world seen in Harmony Korine's "Gummo." And Korine was ill-behaved and was once banned from "The Late Show." It's a film so dark, you can't help but guffaw.
And everyone gives amazing performances. Matthew McConaughey gives a career-high performance as Joe, the man who cannot believe how stupid everyone is. Gina Gershon exudes a dangerous, snakelike quality, especially after we learn of her involvement in the assassin's machinations. Thomas Hayden Church is excellent as the fool, while it hurts our brains to watch Emile Hirsch make dumb decisions. There is also a weirdly intense scene in which Joe seduces the Juno Temple character, and it's gross but also oddly sweet in its own twisted way.
The film's climactic scene involves a bad dinner, a gun, and a cleverly used can of pumpkin pie filling. It's intense, greasy, and more horrifying than anything William Friedkin filmed for "The Exorcist." Then the credits smash into Clarence Carter's 1986 song "Strokin'," one of the most disgusting pop songs ever written this side of AC/DC. I had the "pleasure" of projecting "Killer Joe" on 35mm film for an old movie theater gig, and I could see from the booth how rattled the audience became. I can also announce, as a cautionary tale, that watching the final, bloody scene multiple times in a day can do a small amount of damage to your psyche.
What did critics think of Killer Joe?
"Killer Joe" was a small release, so it wasn't a huge hit, sadly. Critics were generally positive, however, and the film has an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 168 reviews. Even the negative reviews sound like recommendations. The New Yorker's Anthony Lane pointed out that the characters are "all far more concerned by the mechanics of the [murder] plan than by its moral foulness," and that the characters all live on "the brink of abusive farce." Lane felt, however, that William Friedkin was trying to wring the material for shocks rather than dissect the characters' wasted moral emptiness.
Roger Ebert gave "Killer Joe" three stars (out of four), unable to determine whether he liked it. Ebert wrote that it "is one hell of a movie. It left me speechless. I can't say I loved it. I can't say I hated it." He added that "Killer Joe" "depicts a world that is holding onto habitability by its fingernails. Filmed by the great cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, it depicts a place where a billiard parlor has one table, fires burn all night in empty oil drums, chained pitbulls bark and slather..."
Adam Nayman, writing for the Globe and Mail, was particularly glowing, giving "Killer Joe" four stars. He wrote that:
"[T]he combination of narrative propulsion and bracingly nasty dialogue [...] breaks down the viewer's defences. And then, when he has us where he wants us — giggling and nervous — Friedkin the horror-meister returns, staging a couple of sequences so brutally and baroquely over the top that they'll probably be discussed for a long time."
You already know if "Killer Joe" is for you or not, and you likely have already noted a time to go watch it ... or to stay the hell away.