A troubled teen finds himself in even more trouble when his interest in serial killers lands him smack-dab in the middle of a monstrous murder spree. Featuring Max Records and Christopher Lloyd, this Midwestern town is about to be shook up. Spoilers ahead!
While scrolling through Shudder looking for an atmospheric Thanksgiving-into-Christmas movie, I stumbled upon I am Not A Serial Killer. Looked interesting, had Christopher Lloyd, gave it a try. What went from an “outcast teenager” movie in a family drama turned into a fast-paced horror fest for the ages — with Christopher Lloyd! Who would’ve thought!
John Wayne Cleaver (Records) is a clinically-diagnosed sociopath with few friends and a mom that is worried his work in the family mortuary is only pushing his obsession with serial killers further into reality. He soon finds that his neighbor, Mr. Crowley (Lloyd), is responsible for the recent disappearances in town. What’s more is that Mr. Crowley isn’t just killing people — he’s a monster that is dismembering and eating victims to absorb their life essence and keep his own stolen body alive.
The beginning of I Am Not a Serial Killer isn’t slow, but it definitely isn’t the type of movie it turns into. We have a troubled teen with one friend. His family has all sorts of shit going on. He’s getting trouble in school. It’s all kind of a downer… That is, until we see Mr. Crowley’s first kill. Crowley takes a man (who we can tell is not such a savory individual anyway) to a secluded spot to “ice fish,” but instead busts out a gigantic black appendage and disembowels him, roaring in satisfaction the whole time. I was most certainly not expecting the nice old neighbor man to be a whole-ass monster! At that point, I knew it was going to get good.
From then on, it was a cat-and-mouse chase between Cleaver and Crowley — Cleaver wanting to out Crowley, and Crowley wanting to keep his secret. Lots of tense situations and more kills as Crowley enters his berserker mode.
The end got me, though. I was anticipating an ending where Crowley is destroyed and everything is all better, Cleaver has friends now and it’s all good in the hood. But all I got was sadness. Crowley had his reasons for killing. Cleaver was extremely misunderstood and his surroundings weren’t helping him one bit. Then the people dying — despite a few of them being loved members of community — had their families just kind of forget about them after their deaths. Cleaver wasn’t necessarily cured by any of this; I know once that snow melts, he’ll be back at square one with some major trauma to unwrap with a new therapist.
I’m kind of glad it ended this way though. Happy endings have their place, as do bad ones. But middle of the road endings like this one keep themselves nestled in my brain forever. Lots of themes and scenes to think about and unravel here. I Am Not a Serial Killer is a hidden gem and one that fits perfectly in the holiday blur between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’d say to give it a watch for sure, especially if you like frequent emotional changes and gorgeous monster effects.
What did you think about I Am Not A Serial Killer? Let us know in the comments! As of this writing, I Am Not a Serial Killer is available to stream on Shudder.
