How To Be A Serial Killer

Definitely an interesting take on the serial killer phenomena, This movie I felt was a good watch, I would recommend it  to anyone who is swept up in the serial killer craze (fans of Dexter, Criminal Minds, etc.), but I felt that while an important part about the movie was about finding one's voice, this movie didn't really find itself a home.

'How To Be A Serial' killer is partly a narrative about veteran serial killer Mike (Dameon Clarke) taking a pupil (Matthew Gray Gubler) under his tutelage. There is also a 'camera confessional' aspect delving into characters' emotions, as well as a 'self help video' section detailing the rules one needs to follow to be a successful serial killer.

As for acting, there is essentially only two actors in the entire movie, Clarke and Gubler. Clarke I think did a great job, as did Gubler, but I never felt like the two were friends in the movie, it always seemed like they really didn't mesh together as a team. I did think it was interesting that Matthew Gray Gubler played a serial killer in training when his regular gig is playing a genius savant trained to capture serial killers.

Writing I thought was a key downfall. There were too many elements in the movie that distracted me. It wa part narrative, part self help/tutorial, part camera confession. I think if the camera confessional scenes were clipped altogether it would have worked better, especially since there was never anyone following the characters with a camera; those scenes just felt awkward and unnecessary. It also really struggled to find what it's main genre of movie was...there wasn't enough jokes for me to just say it was a comedy, I wasn't invested in the characters enough to find any particular moment suspenseful, and there isn't enough emotional turmoil to make me think of a drama. I labeled it as all three because it has moments that picked out of each category, like a sampler platter of a movie.

Cinematography was decent in the movie, the colors were very natural, and honestly the best lighting are the night scenes when they are driving, but nothing really stood out.

Final Judgement:

This movie is not going to knock your socks off. Like I said at the beginning, if you are into any of the current serial killer shows out there, it's definitely worth the watch and some of the tutorial sections might crop up in your head during those shows. Otherwise, it's not like society is going to notice is you skip this one.

Score: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆