Psychopaths

Sadly, another well made film by Mickey Keating that is ultimately disappointing (following Darling and Carnage Park and POD - but that was a super low budget first film so the positives outweighed the negatives in that case). Keating has an excellent visual eye, and this film is nothing if not a testament to the skills of it's editing, but it is all in the service of absolutely nothing. And even though I personally prefer films that are intelligent, offer new insights and observations within their genre, and approach their subjects with depth, I can still sit back and enjoy movies that seek only to entertain. And during the first half hour of this film I was willing to cut it a lot of slack, even though it announced its conspicuous lack of depth with the line "There ain't no why to evil" and a faceless narrator whose ramblings skirt perilously close to "crap happens". But regardless of the "hook" the film hangs it's narrative on there is no story to speak of and no characters of any depth or real interest even though many of them are given monologues that frequently serve no purpose except adding to the run-time. Keating is too influenced by other directors so there are extended sequences of figures dancing against black or performing old songs in the white light of a stage spotlight (thank you Mr. Lynch) or too-sleazy characters (a totally unbelievable police officer) who gets to have a lengthy, profanity laced monologue saying nothing worth listening to and punctuated by beating another character (an attempt at Tarantino?). Plot? Narrative? Follow-through? Anything??? He doesn't even develop the idea he started with as his hook. You watch the film without engagement, succumbing to frustration that you wasted your time and the director wasted an opportunity to make a good film. And at the end everything dribbles away and we're supposed to see that as clever because the unseen and omnipotent narrator apologizes if it was all "too ambiguous". Keating obviously needs to spend more time re-writing and polishing his screenplays (or find himself a co-writer who will push him toward creative AND coherent), but there is still no reason for the slew of improbabilities and impossibilities that litter the film even if the director's excuse would be "it's supposed to be stylized", such as a character doused in gasoline who wrestles with another man holding a lit cigarette, before taking out a lighter and using it to ignite even more gas - all without attracting a spark. And tossing the fingerprint-laden metal lighter into the fire. Those fingerprints would remain. Or the fact that the same record album contains stylistically divergent music by completely different artists, or an officer is going door to door at 4:30 in the morning and greets a woman with "I hope I didn't wake you". And that same officer's hair (especially if it's a period film as all the accouterments suggest), and the way characters react around a very public crime scene etc etc etc. This film is almost enough to make me give up on Mr. Keating eventually producing a successful film. But I have nothing, if not hope; which is why I turned this on in the first place.

This is Mickey Keating's fifth or sixth film that he both wrote and directed. Its nice to see a director writing and directing all of his movies. It allows for a full vision into the directors mind. Mickey Keating has had a kind of amateur style in his past films, with "Darling" being his highest rated film at 5.5 which to me,is a shock because I didn't think Darling was anything special. The black and white was clearly only used because of a minimal budget and the editing is pretty bland. Keating uses that split screen technique which he led into Psychopaths as well. I went into Psychopaths excited. I seemed it out the day it came out on DVD. Although Keating's directing has been amateurish, he is still a big influence of mine as I am,working on my first feature film myself. Just looking for some people to stand behind it. Keating is a true horror fan. His shudder series is great and its cool how he shot himself up the ladder through deep passion for the genre. Psychopaths surprised me. Its his best looking film yet. That amateur directing style is gone. Besides a few minor editing blunders, It seems like he finally is really getting the hang of this. Psychopaths didnt have a legit story with a climax. It was more of like a montage of murder, or an anthology film about a bunch of different serial killers. A really cool aspect is that its a true indie horror. I LOVE Larry Fessenden. He is one of my top idols. Keating has an all star indie horror cast. Ashley Bell, James Landry Hebert, Josh Ethier, Graham Skipper, Joe Begos, Jeremy Gardener, Helen Rogers, Matt Mercer, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Padraig Reynolds, PLUS it has Angela Trimbur AND Larry Fessenden!! Mark Kassen gave a very good performance in this movie too. Very heartfelt and true. So did Gardener. Most of these people are directors and trekked a very similar path I am currently trekking. This film is truly kind of brilliant. Its refreshing and violent and dark and like a neon noir at the same time. Its a movie about the killers. Imexcited for Mickey and am excited to see what's next for him. You can tell he is happy with what he is doing.

I had really high hopes for this flick...the acting & directing were great, but the story itself & the way the movie ended made no sense.

If the description hadn't stated something about a serial killer dying and his spirit going into all of these other peoples bodies (or something like that) the audience would have like no idea that was even a thing....it seems like a producer watched it and was like.....we got some splainin' to do here. Ashley Bell was amazing as always, highlight of the movie. Not a bad movie at all, but uneven and beautifully shot.

So the movie does not concentrate just on one person or one story. It actually feels like short movies put together with the theme of people acting in a bad manner (or being Psychopaths as the title suggests). The movie therefor has some flow and pacing issues, but that comes with the territory. If you have multiple strings and strands that have to make sense themselves but also in the overall picture, that is what happens.

The acting is good, the editing is good. And if you don't mind there is a lot of violence in it too. There are some surprising elements and if you like darker themed movies, you will like this movie. While you may argue, this movie paints a picture of society and there might be evidence that this sort of evil does exist in the real world, this still is a movie