Joss Whedon regulars Alyson Hannigan (Buffy) and Fran Kranz (Dollhouse, Cabin in the Woods, Much Ado About Nothing) finally share the screen in Brett Simmons’ meta-horror comedy You Might Be The Killer.
Considering its source of inspiration was a series of Tweets from Sam Sykes and Chuck Wendig that beautifully unpacked the slasher genre, you could be forgiven for thinking that this movie is doomed to fail. Hollywood has yet to make a great film based on video games, and they have rich backstories to draw upon, so a bunch of Tweets getting the movie treatment might not sound that promising. However, reviews for the film from its Fantastic Fest screening in Austin have started to creep out, and by all accounts, fans of the genre are on board.
Naturally, comparisons will be made with Drew Goddard/Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods for all its self-aware humour and deconstruction of the genre. Sadly, there is still no details on when You Might Be The Killer will arrive in the UK, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Here’s how Fantastic Fest describes the film;
You Might Be the Killer opens with a bang. Screams, gore, and slasher mayhem tear across the screen with vibrant title cards counting out the total number of dead counsellors (current score: A LOT). Sam (Fran Kranz), the head counsellor at this remote camp, is safely cooped up in a cabin with a working cell phone, but instead of contacting the police, he calls his friend Chuck (the always-delightful Alyson Hannigan) in a panic.
Chuck is well-versed in slasher movie tropes and leads Sam through all the necessary steps to survive the night while also helping him remember each step that has led to this point. Told from the perspective of the third act looking back upon the horrors and plot twists through flashback, it’s a full reversal of the beats one expects in this subgenre. Rather than endearing us to the characters slowly so we fear for their deaths, we’re shown their deaths almost immediately upon meeting them. Ultimately, instead of being about one-dimensional sexy teens meeting their demise, it’s about the joys of both the kill and the genre itself. Similarly, the film’s secrets are unveiled in an unexpected order: we learn the killer’s identity before we’re told who’s dead. But really, this reveal is just the start of the fun.
