The Killer Inside Me (2010)

"The book is better" is a familiar saying tossed around when a film is adapted from a novel. Fortunately for me I have not read John Thompson's 1952 novel The Killer Inside Me, so my view of the film is not tainted by the novel. Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) is the Deputy Sheriff of a small West Texas town that he has lived in his whole life. He plans on marrying his girlfriend Amy (Kate Hudson) and has the respect of the community. Ford appears to another normal man about town, but is harboring within him a darkness that will rock this small town.

Given the task of running a local prostitute (Jessica Alba) out of the county, things take a brutal turn for Ford the night it goes down. The district attorney (Simon Baker) doesn't buy Ford's story of what happened that night and is constantly on his tale as the story progresses and more characters are pulled into the recent on-goings that are shaking up the small town.

Casey Affleck gives a chilling performance as Lou Ford. It is very unsettling the way he talks and goes about town after all that he does during the movie. It is eerie and disturbing all around. This film is listed as one of the ones that earned Jessica Alba a Razzie and I think that it is unwarranted. The film is very well shot and I do not think that the few violent scenes take away from the film. Much has been said about the graphic nature and the violence portrayed, but I think that it fits the film and the character.

I would recommend this film, but it is not for everyone because of the violent scenes. Indeed, they are hard to watch, but the film would not be the same without them. I find the controversy over this film interesting because there are far more violent movies that have attracted less attention for their violence. I think people have a hard time when shown what humans can do to each other and do not like to acknowledge that there are people like that out there, but pretending like it does not exist does not make it go away. People's lust for violence makes the controversy all the more interesting. Apparently, even fake violence can sometimes be worse than the real thing. The book seems very intriguing after watching the movie.