'Killer Joe' is an excessively dark and disturbing imagining of Pulitzer-prize winning Tracy Letts' 1993 play and screenplay. This great film marks a (long overdue) return to form for William Friedkin.
Trailer-park inhabitant Chris Smith (a visceral Emile Hirsch) desperately needs cash to pay his gambling debts, or else the sharks will settle for his blood. Chris hatches a plan with his degenerate dad Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church) and younger sister Dottie (an unforgettable Juno Temple) to kill his mom, whom they have hated ever since she left them, to claim the $50K insurance money.
As they lack the courage to pull off the stunt themselves, they commission 'Killer Joe' Cooper to carry out this sordid scheme. Detracting from his typically saccharine roles, Matthew McConaughey gives a career-defining performance as the eponymous Dallas police detective who kills people for money.
Assisted by Friedkin's fetishistic filming, Joe oozes magnetism. He dresses all in black and is a remnant of cowboy-era America. He'd be a perfect villain in a Sergio Leone film – provided it was rated 18. Debonair and chivalrous on the surface, Joe is actually a sadistic creep who can dish out the most precipitous violence (you won't believe the stomach-churning scene featuring a piece of fried chicken!).
Things turn ugly when Joe learns of a set up. He appropriates Dottie as his 'retainer', and moves in with the family to ensure he gets his $25K fee. As dim-witted as the Smiths' are, they're smart enough to know they're dead if they don't cough up some dough. These scenes resemble ones from Friedkin's 1968 film, 'The Birthday Party'. They're meant to contain dark humour, which they do, but aren't all that funny. They serve instead to make the film more creepy.
What we get is just what the ad posters proclaim: A totally twisted, deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story. And I loved every minute of it.
Trailer-park inhabitant Chris Smith (a visceral Emile Hirsch) desperately needs cash to pay his gambling debts, or else the sharks will settle for his blood. Chris hatches a plan with his degenerate dad Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church) and younger sister Dottie (an unforgettable Juno Temple) to kill his mom, whom they have hated ever since she left them, to claim the $50K insurance money.
As they lack the courage to pull off the stunt themselves, they commission 'Killer Joe' Cooper to carry out this sordid scheme. Detracting from his typically saccharine roles, Matthew McConaughey gives a career-defining performance as the eponymous Dallas police detective who kills people for money.
Assisted by Friedkin's fetishistic filming, Joe oozes magnetism. He dresses all in black and is a remnant of cowboy-era America. He'd be a perfect villain in a Sergio Leone film – provided it was rated 18. Debonair and chivalrous on the surface, Joe is actually a sadistic creep who can dish out the most precipitous violence (you won't believe the stomach-churning scene featuring a piece of fried chicken!).
Things turn ugly when Joe learns of a set up. He appropriates Dottie as his 'retainer', and moves in with the family to ensure he gets his $25K fee. As dim-witted as the Smiths' are, they're smart enough to know they're dead if they don't cough up some dough. These scenes resemble ones from Friedkin's 1968 film, 'The Birthday Party'. They're meant to contain dark humour, which they do, but aren't all that funny. They serve instead to make the film more creepy.
What we get is just what the ad posters proclaim: A totally twisted, deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story. And I loved every minute of it.