I Am Not a Serial Killer

This offbeat horror movie, starring Max Records, is as much a subtle psychological drama as it is a chiller

This offbeat horror movie, starring Max Records, is as much a subtle psychological drama as it is a chiller.

Records plays a 16-year-old with a morbid interest in dead bodies, both the corpses featuring in true crime stories and the ones popping up in the embalming room of the family funeral parlour run by his single mother (Laura Fraser).

If that didn't make him strange enough, he is also a diagnosed sociopath, who finds it hard to form emotional attachments and struggles to curb his aggressive impulses.

However, his homicidal leanings make him an effective sleuth when a serial killer begins preying on the inhabitants of his chilly Minnesota hometown.

Director Billy O'Brien's film has a few shocks in store, not to mention a streak of dark comedy, but the biggest surprise is how sympathetic its anti-social hero turns out to be, thanks to Records' remarkably nuanced performance.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Christopher Lloyd is terrific, too, as his mysterious geriatric neighbour.

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