Office Killer

A mousy wallflower accidentally kills a co-worker and suddenly realizes her life would be better without some of these fools in her life and goes on a killing spree, murdering several people in her office. Carol Kane gets a chance to shine as the lead character in this and does a great job creating such a unique and bizarre woman. Molly Ringwald is also a lot of fun as the office gossip. Some of the dark humor might not amuse those looking for a straightforward horror film, but I found it really delicious.

***SPOILERS*** Hard to take black-comedy that grosses itself out long before the ending credits. Mousey and introverted magazine proofreader Dorine Douglas,Carol Kane,is the most effective worker at the office. When it comes down the grapevine that there's going to be a major change-over at the magazine Dorine as well as most of the staff are sent home to do the work and e-mail it in via a new computer system that being installed.

Dorine looking harmless and nerdy has a deep seeded and unstable violent streak in her and it's this event that eventually bring it out to the surface with murderous results. Not wanting to be at home with her infirmed mother Chalotta, Alice Drummond,and away from her job and fellow workers at the office slowly turns Dorine's sick thoughts into violent actions and it's a quirk of fate that sets it all into motion.

Quietly and secretly killing off her fellow workers at the magazine Dorine hides their bodies in her basement to keep her company. While all this was going on Kim, Molly Ringwald,a writer at the magazine becomes suspicious of Dorine not really knowing whats she doing but that she's somehow trying to get her fired from the job.

Dorine besides murdering her fellow workers is greatly disturbed with Kim who, besides being more popular, seems to be on to her and about to uncover what Dorine's really up to. There's also office manager Norah Reed, Jeanne Tripplehorn who Dorine feels has been embezzling the magazine coffers and is responsible for what's been happening there.

Trying to murder Kim in a dark and empty stairway Kim gets away but is later fired for accusing "sweet and innocent" Dorine of trying to kill her. Norah who befriends Dorine, because her timely article saved the magazine from folding, invites her out to lunch. It's then when she's knocked out in the parking lot by her and brought back to Dorines basement and locked in with all the other stiffs.

Kim getting in touch with Norah's boyfriend Danial, Michael Imperioli, to warn him about how unstable Dorine is as well as Norah being alone with her that afternoon. This has has him driving to the Douglas house looking for her only to find that Kim was right about Dorine, dead right, and that he and Norah were soon to pay the price for not listening to her.

Strange but interesting and not for everyones tastes "Office Killer" takes a while to get off the ground but once it gets going you can't really take your eye off it.

Carol Kane as Dorine is her usual quite and passive self at first but slowly goes postal as the pressure of her job, and putting up with her nagging mom, gets to her and drives Dorine over the brink. We also get an insight of Dorine's relationship with both her mom and dad Peter Douglas, Eric Bogosian,in a number of flashback sequences. The flashbacks indicate that she not only was sexually abused by Peter when she was a young girl but was also responsible for the car accident that took his life, and ended up crippling her mom for life. Which may have well been the reason for her distorted mental state as an adult.

I was impressed to see this film had so many bad reviews, both from critics and viewers. I saw it and I actually think it is a very good inside joke, it is only necessary to get the "spirit" of it. Director Cindy Sherman uses gore and some very curious camera positions to make you a little bit scary and also laugh once or twice (not out-loud, though). The performances from Carol Kane (totally crazy) and Molly Ringwald (in a very against-the-type turn) are very good. The supporting cast (German actress Barbara Sukowa and The Soprano's Michael Imperioli) is also interesting. I think this film makes a perfect midnight video snack with some friends.

This movie is great for John Waters fans. It's incredibly campy. If you're looking for horror, you won't really find it here, though it is a bit gory. I believe that this movie was intended to be ridiculously bad. At the time I saw it, my friend and I were both temps and the over-wrought workplace melodramas and vocabulary really resonated with us. Carol Kane was great, and Molly Ringwald was as I've never seen her before -- a caricature of herself. I look forward to Cindy Sherman's next picture.

In the mid-90's, there was this weird trend where 80's New York art stars were all given the chance to direct feature films. The less-than-impressive results: Robert Longo's "Johnny Mnemonic," David Salle's "Search and Destroy," Julian Schnabel's "Basquiat" and finally Cindy Sherman's "Office Killer." That only Schnabel moved on to direct a second feature says a lot about these poor directorial choices. Surprise - just because you can paint a picture or take a photograph doesn't mean you know how to make a movie.

That said, "Office Killer" has a unique look to it: Sherman's photographic eye makes for some nice creepy compositions, even if her philosophy about using a camera cinematically is of the bolt-it-to-the-ground-and-maybe-pan-a-little school. And she works well with cinematographer Russell Fine, though the whole film is shot through a murky lens that had this viewer crying out for the occasional bright exterior just to add a little contrast.

So what went wrong with "Office Killer"? Well, pretty much what you'd predict would go wrong with a photographer director who had never made a film before: uneven pacing; more attention paid to the setup of a shot than to what's going on in it; a lack of tension; and a cast who, with the exception of the ever-willing Carol Kane, don't seem to know what to do. Aware that they're working for a famous photographer, they quietly obey, even while Sherman clearly has little experience in working with actors. Michael Imperioli and Jeanne Tripplehorn have been far better elsewhere, Barbara Sukowa is flat-out bad, and Molly Ringwald is her usual depthless self. The script is also somewhat leaden, given its dark comic potential.

"Office Killer" is still a curiosity, interesting mainly for aficionados of Cindy Sherman's work (and you've got to admire those cool opening credits), though horror fans who enjoyed the better-received "May" (which I personally didn't care for) might like this movie's look and mood. As for me, I couldn't shake off the feeling that this is the product of a bunch of chuckling New York hipsters who thought they were doing something "postmodern" and "ironic" but only churned out something uninspired and limp... albeit artsy.