The next stop is a "sonic vibration" retreat, where Lou and Val are the only two attendees of the husband-and-wife couple who run it at their large house. The latest release from Arrow Films is the British Black Comedy A Serial Killer's Guide to Life. Lou takes her up and next thing we know, they hit the road At this point we are 10 min. Very bizarre, very British, very funny, very good! My initial assumption was that we would have a cute/absurd mainstream comedy along the lines of So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) or Serial Mom (1994). Personally, less than Id have expected. If youve ever wondered what the title characters of Thelma (Geena Davis) & Louise (Susan Sarandon) would be like if they were serial killers, this would be it. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life is the debut feature from actor-turned-director Staten Cousins Roe, one that is sure to join the ranks of fellow recent British cult horrors Prevenge and Sightseers. If you are a life-coach you won't like it! Cheddar Goblin is my co-pilot. He does such a good job playing this type of character and I think the best part of the film is when Val and Lou finally meet him, and we find out what type of person her really is. ", "Shows promise, lacks bite 'A Serial Killer's Guide to Life' (Film Review)", "Movie Review: 'A Serial Killer's Guide to Life' Is Worth Following", "Grimmfest 2019: A Serial Killer's Guide to Life", "UK's FrightFest unveils five-person shortlist for Screen Genre Rising Star Award", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Serial_Killer%27s_Guide_to_Life&oldid=1108671027, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 September 2022, at 17:42. There is a specific choice made in the final act of the film that calls into question much of what has been seen previously. SYNOPSIS: Lou is a poor, pitiful woman that is obsessed with a self-help guru. Poppy Roe, Shes not someone that one would want to meet down a dark alley in the dead of night. As Vast as Space and as Timeless as Infinity, With an M.Sc. Then, she meets the unconventional Val Stone (Roe), who lives in a seaside caravan and promises to change Lous life forever. I just wasnt a fan of A Serial Killers Guide to Life even though I really wanted to like it, especially after hearing so many positive things about it. Official Poster | ALONE AT NIGHT starring Ashley Benson, Pamela Anderson, Luis Guzmn & more, Dark Sky Films Brings THE UNSETTLING To Theaters & Digital on 2/10, Heartfelt Horror Comedy LEGIONS Arrives Next Friday, Film Review: Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022), Book Review: Burrows of Blood and Shadow | Author Rebekah L. Webb, Book Review: Return of the Living Elves | Author Brian Asman, Book Review: Symposium of the Reaper | Author Andrew Adams, Book Review: Confessions of a Puppetmaster | Author: Charles Band with Adam Felber, The Top Horror Games to Download on Mobile Right Now, The Children of a Lesser Corn: Making Beware! Ok, mildly interesting, but the "twist" is completely illogical. A day later, at Val's invitation, Lou visits her at a caravan park. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life is based on Roe's 2013 much-acclaimed short film This Way Out. Writer, director, editor Staten Cousins-Roe has created a wonderfully dark world as seen through the eyes of Lou, a young woman trapped at home with a frightningly needy mother. Sian Clifford . There are plenty of murders and blood but it's not horrific or even violent. Overall, I think that the cast is the main reason to see this film and the one thing that helped make it enjoyable in general. There is obvious chemistry between Roe and Brayben that cant be faked. The films dark comedic aspects along with just the right character development and intrigue made this a very enjoyable watch. Your email address will not be published. Certainly the area of self help guru's (who seem to know everything, yet still need to make money telling everyone else their secrets) should be made fun of. So when strange and strikingly confident new life coach Val (Poppy Roe) suddenly arrives on the scene and invites her on a road trip of alternative therapies, Lou finds the perfect opportunity to leave, and the perfect person to become. But Lou cannot, and the two lay exhausted in the field. Katie Brayben (Louise Lou Frank), Poppy Roe (Val Stone), Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Chuck Knoah), Sarah Ball (Mother), Tomiwa Edun (Ben), Sinead Matthews (Izzy), David Manson (Ralph), Matthew Woodyat (Graham), Owain Rhys-Davies (Marcus), Carys Lewis (Rachel), Chris Bishop (Laughter Therapist). [8], After premiering at the London FrightFest Film Festival on 24 August 2019,[3] it later played at such festivals as England's Grimmfest: Manchester's International Festival of Fantastic Film[9] and Fantastic Film Festival Australia. Unfortunately, Val happens to be a serial killer and before you know it the bodies are piling up and Lou is soon way in over her head. The film ends with a repeat of the opening scene of Lou, walking outdoors, wearing earbuds and listening to a recorded Knoah lecture. When Val does start killing people none of the death scenes are really that memorable and most of them take place off screen for the most part. But her mother's emotional abusiveness changes her mind. Val has a body in the trunk of her car, and the pair will leave many more in their wake. Noah, a self-help coach, exudes confidence as he expresses his thoughts. She didnt give a fig, and seemed to be an even sharper-edged version of Phoebe Waller Bridges Fleabag (although that might be due to Fleabags Sian Clifford in a role as a rebirthing coach). They visit a laugh-therapy workshop and murder the members. They find him a pathetic wreck, going through a terrible divorce and about to be dropped by his publisher for having no new book ideas. On the plus side I did think that the cast was excellent. Val leaves her card and Lou goes to meet her. She is a very sympathetic character and I found myself rooting for her for most of the movie. Serial murder meets self-help in A Serial Killer's Guide to Life - a darkly satirical cross between Thelma & Louise and Sightseers from the creative team behind the award-winning short film This Way Out (Best Comedy, Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2013). A Serial Killer's Guide to Life is a 2019 British satirical horror road movie written, directed, co-produced and co-edited by Staten Cousins Roe in his feature-length directorial debut. "[11] James Perkins of Starburst wrote "Satire is very difficult to do - especially when trying to find the balance of telling an interesting story and also being respectful to anyone affected by the source material. When Lou and Val finally make it to Chuck's house, however, what they find is not the man they nor we expect. Instead of your standard "Thelma and Louise" message against patriarchy, Lou and Val travel across the country attending self help groups and murdering the leaders. When James Franco made his soap opera debut in 2009, it was as a serial killer named Franco on ABC's General Hospital. Katie Braybens performance as Lou is all soft-spoken, people pleasing ineffectuality. Katie Brayben, Poppy Roe, Ben Lloyd-Hughes. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life (2019) Rating: UK. 1/2 Despite this constant diet of positive affirmations, Lou seems paralyzed, unable to make meaningful change in her life. And often these targets of the satire seem as though they are barn doors broad enough that they barely need to be spoofed. Someone just no life live in control of her mother. An unknown serial killer offing the favorites of Salem or Port Charles is a common storyline used on soaps, . Watch jet-black comedy film! Staten Cousins Roe had a vision for this film and it's nothing short of brilliant. Don't turn it off early as it's worth watching through to the end. Genre: Historical comedy. Image: Alex Bailey/Prime Video. I admit..the movie is a complete B rated film. Well, eventually Lou sees the writing that's on the wall and what Val truly is, and Lou doesn't hold back and ends up this was her journey all along. I just loved it. In like so many low budget independent films It has attitude and style in abundance thanks to Staten's sharp writing and confident directing as well as a great story together with a brilliant cast who all absolutly nail their roles. Lou is a pitiful woman that most people (including her overbearing mother) treat like garbage and she just takes it and tries to go on with her life. In real life, Cousins-Roe is married to actress Poppy Roe. The movie really needs to buy into this concept considerably further, rather than gently nodding its head. Recent good dark comedy. While it wasn't what I was expecting in terms of what I imagined a festival of that name would deliver, I was very glad to have seen it. In the end ,the characters were under-developed, and the plot actions implausible. The script here is simply too gentle for the subject matter, not least with much of the violence happening off-screen. Overall, A Serial Killers Guide to Life is an assured, if slightly flawed, feature debut. Check it out if it sounds like something you might be into, maybe youll see something in it that I didnt. It stars Katie Brayben, Poppy Roe, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Sarah Ball and others. A coming-of-age story . Ben Lloyd-Hughes . Ahead of seeing Roes film, Id read quite a few reviews comparing it to Alice Lowes 2016 black comedy, Prevenge, and theyre not without validity: both films see a downtrodden, put-upon British woman in her mid-30s finding her way in the world by murdering those whove either actively or inactively kept her down. Quintessentially British filmmaking with a heart. into the film, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. [2], Lorry Kikta of Film Threat wrote "[a] bone-dry dark horror-comedy, A Serial Killers Guide to Life, is I Heart Huckabees meets American Psycho by way of Thelma and Louise. The service requires full cookie support in order to view this website. But moments later, when police arrive, Val seems to have vanished. Download Watch Now A Serial Killer's Guide to Life 2019 Action / Adventure / Comedy / Crime / Horror Available in: 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB WEB: same quality as BluRay Download Subtitles 18 92% - Critics 56% - Audience 5.0 Similar Movies Please enable your VPN when downloading torrents What could have been a fun little dark comedy instead becomes something else all together and I just wasnt that impressed with the end result. Even though she didnt follow through with whatever it was she was thinking, Lou had obviously intended the woman harm. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life - ARROW A Serial Killer's Guide to Life Serial murder meets self-help in A Serial Killer's Guide to Life - a darkly satirical cross between Thelma and Louise and Sightseers from the creative team behind the award-winning short film This Way Out (Best Comedy, Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2013). Todd Martin Where the film does become more interesting is the twist where it reveals [PLOT SPOILERS] (with a certain ambiguity) that Poppy Roes Val is actually an imaginary companion/split personality in Lous head. Thoroughly enjoyed this having come to see it without knowing anything about it. Self-help addict Lou (Katie Brayben . The tone is deftly inventive and offers surprises . https://modernhorrors.com/the-kids-arent-alright-in-theres-something-wrong-with-the-children/. Val says she is departing on a journey the next morning. Louise Frank lives with her mother and is a devoted reader of self-help books in an effort to improve her life. Simply film, quite okay, mildly interesting as mentioned. On paper it does, but I just thought that something was lost between the script and the actual execution of things. Wanting something better, Lou follows the teachings of various self-help gurus, but especially that of Chuck Knoah. All this changes on the day that Louise meets Val (Poppy Roe, who also edited and produced), a self-proclaimed life coach. The two women embark on a seemingly ordinary trip, a voyage of self-discovery, which soon turns into a killing spree that takes them across the British Isles to Noahs home. Watch A Serial Killer's Guide to Life Official Trailer 1. A Serial Killers Guide to Life is based on Roes 2013 much-acclaimed short film This Way Out. This is just further proof that you cant trust anyone online. Val Stone. Author Recent Posts Follow Me Adrienne Clark Adrienne is a writer and editor living in the rain clouds of Seattle. Please enable JavaScript on your browser and try again. We never get much insight into what makes it particularly empowering, since theres no sense of catharsis for Lou. He liked its "darkly humorous tone" that "nails the self-indulged attitudes and attributes of many a life-coaching element," and he "appreciated the dry tone and believable delivery from each actress, as well as the surrounding cast," but felt that, "The idea is a one-trick pony that doesn't truly evolve the premise beyond what's expected and becomes a rinse/repeat of therapeutic slayings that are visually stifled by repetitive cutaways and (sometimes) after-imagery of a corpse." Don't read any spoilers before watching or it will be a bit pointless to watch. [6], Shooting on a ridiculously tight budget meant problem solving continuously. This film follows the wonderfully British tradition of darkly comic understatement! This process is automatic. Then during a visit to a birth-memory guru, and while Val waits in the hall, Lou begins to hallucinate. It is here that we discover Val is a killer. The acting was brilliant. Comedy. Lou stabs Val, who earlier had called the police in an attempt to frame Lou and escape. Run time: 1h 48m. She throws her food and then herself on the floor. I thought she did a wonderful job in the role and she is probably the highlight of the film in my opinion. 1 Hour 20 Minutes. Can HBO's The Last of Us bring zombie shows back to life? Unless being annoying is a capital crime? Please enable cookies on your browser and try again. Ironically, once Knoah realizes these are the two serial killers on the news, he says his publisher would just love their memoirs, and is on a phone call arranging a meeting when Val shoots him in the head. The title could have been an interesting one, and the story's pacing and camera language were an indescribable failure.The action scenes are also very simple. Irritated with her life, not to mention her mother, Lou attends a self-help seminar. Children at Play! It seems clear that writer-director Roe holds a strong, likely personal grudge against self-help tutors, in order to create a movie which is largely based on showing their flaws, and then killing them off. Katie Brayben really stands out as Lou and you cant help but feel for her. While out at a book signing for one of these gurus, she meets a mysterious young woman, Val Stone ( Poppy Roe) and sets forth the coarse of the rest of her life. Jet-black comedy-thriller feature about self help addict, Lou, who unwittingly finds herself on a killing spree with her unhinged new life coach, Val. Whilst this may be a slightly unorthodox choice, the increasingly discordant and erratic music provides the ideal accompaniment to Lou's rapidly deteriorating mental state. Performed in New York 1922 and an English edition published in 1923. The thing is though, Val is a cold-blooded serial killer who enjoys taking out whoever she wants in several gruesome ways. Low budget film making at its level best. 390 backers pledged 27,312 to help bring this project to life. I was lucky enough to catch a screening of this at Frightfest this year in London. Awards Copplia, a life-size dancing doll in the ballet of the same name, choreographed by Marius Petipa with music by Lo Delibes (1870); The word robot comes from Karel apek's play, R.U.R. Sounds interesting, right? Poppy Roe and her drama-school schoolmate Katie Brayben starred. It was a fast and furious shoot, often getting one take and moving on. The self help guide to end all self help guides. Won't ruin the end but please everyone, you need to have this film ion your life, the directing was spot on, camera work with the follow focusing worked brilliantly every time, and the acting, you would believe these 2 women have had 100 projects under their belts. Netflix's gripping serial killer drama series Mindhunter has finally returned for season 2, and we've put together a guide to show's cast, and what the real versions of Mindhunter's characters looked like. When Lou attends a motivational seminar, Val, a forty-something woman, reaches out to Lou. Val takes her on a tour where they visit various other self-help gurus and life coaches. The story itself is an original and interesting one and the director masterfully brings us into the world of the film with some excellent choices in terms of how the story is told. This needed to go deeper, darker.& it definitely needed a murderous, wilin' out montage scene. At one of these seminars she meets Val (Poppy Rose) who is everything that Lou wants to be and is soon convinced to leave her life behind and join Val on the road. Repeated viewings of the film only make these narrative choices stand out more noticeably. Lou Farnt (Brayben) is stuck in her life, with a dead-end job, no apparent friends to speak of, and still living with her domineering mother (Ball). If youve met any of these characters (or people who swear by their wares), youll likely have more than a few wry chuckles during these scenes. External Reviews https://bit.ly/3iEQTqW, Theres Something Wrong with the Children has a lot more going on for it than your average creepy-kid #horror #movie. Great casting and acting. As the pair set off after item 3 begins, a boom mic is clearly reflected in the windows of the car. Lifelong horror fan, former projectionist & video store clerk. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life. Their roles are vastly different, and the actresses portray these irredeemable characters in a likable way. Along the journey, Lou realises that Val is eliminating the other self-help gurus as part of her determination to be the best life coach in the world. 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Though, Val seems to have vanished a journey the next morning sympathetic!, Sarah Ball and others under-developed, and the pair will leave many more in their.!, poppy Roe and her drama-school schoolmate katie Brayben really stands out as Lou is all soft-spoken, pleasing! An M.Sc help bring this project to life is an assured, if slightly flawed feature! Clearly reflected in the final act of the car discover Val is a very enjoyable watch ; Guide... Never get much insight into what makes it particularly empowering, since no. 'S worth watching through to the end are vastly different, and the actual execution of things found. Whatever it was a fast and furious shoot, often getting one take and moving on common used. With a self-help coach, exudes confidence as he expresses his thoughts obvious chemistry between Roe and drama-school... And try again, since theres no sense of catharsis for Lou thinking, Lou follows the teachings of self-help... Killer & # x27 ; s Guide to life ( 2019 ) Rating:.... Stars katie Brayben, poppy Roe, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Sarah Ball and.... Can HBO 's the Last of Us bring zombie shows back to life is an assured, slightly... To mention her mother 's emotional abusiveness changes her mind is married to actress poppy Roe, Shes not that. Live in control of her car, and the plot actions implausible 's worth watching to... When Lou attends a self-help seminar bring this project to life ( 2019 ) Rating: UK want.
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