PopHorror Let's Get Scared
American Killing properly represents the direction that horror cinema is headed in. While it doesn’t go full-on meta, it does capture that “movie inside a movie” aspect that a lot of films aim for these days. It contains characters that are disenchanted with their personal lives and delves into some of that psyche and tension. The premise and antagonist are taut, but the pacing early on leaves a little to be desired.
American Killing is a horror thriller effort from directors Matthew Ward (Wichita 2016) and Justyn Ah Chong (Down on the Sidewalk in Waikiki 2019). The script was also written by Ward. This film tells the tale of a desperate TV show writer who gathers his team on a retreat in an attempt to save his faltering series from being cancelled. Once they’re all together, one of them realizes that the best stories sometimes pop up in front of the camera, unplanned.
The most noticeable thing about this film is its polarizing lead character, Jeb, played masterfully by Trevor Peterson (The Vampire Diaries TV series). He was written with depth and nuance, and the way that Peterson portrays the awkwardness and descent makes for one of the stronger leads in any indie film I’ve seen this year. A tip of the cap as well to the Mama character (Sondra Kerr Blake: Grown Ups 2017), whose blend of religious zealot and loving protector made for a nice turning point in the story.
There were hints of The Editor (see our editorial here) and The Last Showing to this, and once it got going, it was a fun watch. But for a movie titled American Killing, you find yourself waiting for the actual killing a bit too long. The character arcs and settings are solid – at times, even great – but there comes a point in the movie where you’re waiting for the shoe to drop and anything to happen. The sound design/music are very good when they’re present, but those moments are few and far in between. The lack of sound actually takes tension away from what should be very tense moments. The characters that we’re left with in the final act are some of the lesser developed ones, so the coda comes with very little fanfare.
All in all, American Killing is an example of getting it totally right in some aspects, but not filling out the story in the middle. While the ends are taut, the middle feels more like dragged padding instead of making the audience feel for the characters fate-to-come. But there’s something of an excellent character study here that gives a bit of a nod to the horror golden era.
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