Killers (2015)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Oka Antara, Rin Takanashi, Kazuki Kitamura
Directed by Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto
Distributed by Well Go USA Entertainment
I think we can all agree that the rivalry between two strangers can be the stuff of legends – whether it be who is the better student or the better athlete – but how about who is the more entertaining killer when two people don’t really know each other so neither is willing to back down? Now that’s one to chew on, indeed… and with the directorial switch-hitting of the “Mo Brothers” (Stamboel and Tjahjanto), Killers is a display that showcases both sides of murder, from torturous to justifiable, and how one side views the other.
Our two main characters are Nomura (Kazuki Kitamura) and Bayu (Oka Antara). Nomura is a sadistic killer who lures attractive young women back to his home, where he systematically tortures them, eventually ending their lives in some sort of sadistic fashion, all the while filming and later uploading it to the internet for all to see. Bayu is a down-on-his-luck journalist who is in the midst of a personal crisis, and after a botched robbery he decides to kill his attackers (which he sees as condonable), film it, and upload it to the internet as well. As the two men begin to find each other’s kills online, they start to become “obsessed” with each other’s work and initiate a competition of sorts. While Nomura slaughters innocents at the drop of a hat, Bayu only lays waste to those that have done either him or someone else wrong. In any event, the contest begins to spiral out of control as more and more bodies pile up, and the two murderers seem destined to have a head-on collision at some point.
The movie’s premise is rather simple with violence that is off-the-charts in both its inventiveness and visual display, and the characters are people that some of the mad masses could definitely agree with. Kitamura plays it cool and calm with his Patrick Bateman-like style of getting bloody, and Antara excels as the at times frightened soul who acts out of sheer desperation. As the movie offers viewers a stunning series of ocular treats that will make the gorehounds yank at their chains, there are a few CGI moments that come off as simply hokey; and with a runtime of nearly 140 minutes, there just wasn’t a real need to shove the story down our throats for so long.
As Killers drew to a close and I’d wiped as much blood off of myself as I could, there was a brief moment of relief as the credits rolled, not so much due to the length of the movie, but it had seemed like the Mo Brothers had made some sense of the madness that was played out on screen. Take it or leave it, there’s a little lunatic in ALL of us, and under the perfect circumstances, one side of the lunatic switch could be flipped, whether it be based on the need for a little sadism or if you felt the urge to right a personal wrong. Either way you slice it, Killers is a film that should be enjoyed at least once, but PLEASE leave your video cameras off, as blood on the lens can truly ruin an otherwise genuinely exquisite shot.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
