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Runtime: 82 mins
Directed by: #StatenCousinsRoe
Starring: #KatieBrayben, #PoppyRoe, #SianClifford
Grimmfest Feature by: Darren Tilby
Synopsis: Self-help addict Lou wants nothing more than to escape the dead-end seaside town where she grew up, but when an opportunity to leave presents itself she finds herself on an unexpected killing spree with her strange and strikingly confident new life coach, Val.
Grimmfest say: The title and synopsis might suggest a broad, brash black farce, but Staten Cousins-Roe’s deceptively beguiling debut feature downplays it all the way. The result is a low-key, understated, almost wistfully comic study of loneliness, thwarted lives, and the desire for self-realisation and acknowledgement. The obvious points of reference are Ben Wheatley’s SIGHTSEERS, both in tone and in its eye for rural landscape, and the work of Chuck Palahniuk in some of the satiric targets chosen, but there are echoes too of Mike Leigh in the social observation and the eye for the absurd, and even of Andrea Arnold or Lynne Ramsay in the restless camerawork and washed out colour palette. It’s a very… British depiction of serial killers on the road. A country road of course. Somewhere in the home counties.
What I'm Expecting: While it's tempting to jump straight in and assume that A Serial Killer's Guide to Life will be a Thelma & Louise clone, I really hope it isn't. There will be similarities, of course, there will be. Much like Thelma & Louise, I'd thoroughly expect to see the film assiduously explore the complexities of female companionship. But being a British-made film, I'd also hope the film-makers have made use of the drab, gloominess of the English countryside, perhaps in such a way which supports a study of isolation and loneliness. And, of course, no British film would be the same without the dark and dry humour we all know and love. I have high hopes for A Serial Killer's Guide to Life, but I know I won't be disappointed.
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