by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

I had been dying to watch Office Killer ever since I read the essay Dahlia Schweitzer wrote in the book, Women Make Horror. At the time I found that the film was almost impossible to find. Ultimately I ended up spending more money than I should have on a used dvd that included that film along with several seemingly terrible films. Luckily for you, it is now available on Criterion Channel in their “female filmmakers” section. Side note, Criterion has a great selection and it includes one of my favorites, Jennifer’s Body. Now, Office Killer is a thoroughly strange movie that feels part B-movie slasher, and part quirky arthouse film. However, it is a film that manages to delve into some interesting and timely social commentary on abuse and capitalist greed. It makes it feel very much ahead of its time. It also has a killer cast and a wonderful murderous female, Dorine Douglas. 

Office Killer follows Dorine (Carol Kane) a quiet and awkward magazine editor working for a magazine company that is facing major cutbacks. Quickly Dorine and her co-workers are forced to take pay cuts, work from home, and move to part time positions. On top of all that the company is trying to move into the technological age and has to teach everyone to use their first ever computers. One night when her obnoxious co-worker Gary (David Thornton) is accidentally killed in front of her, she decides that instead of calling the cops she will take his corpse home and care for it. He becomes a part of her “family”. Soon she sees an opportunity to get rid of her more obnoxious co-workers and make them all docile members of her newly formed family.

The film was the first and only full length feature from photographer Cindy Sherman. The film received mixed reviews; it seems that some folks have trouble getting on board with its tone and mood. However underneath its strangeness it has some very interesting ideas going on. The film breaks down “what makes a killer” in a way that I do not often see in other movies. It also seeks to question our morals. Is Dorine killing these people okay? Is capitalism even worse? Do we treat workings in very unfair and unethical ways that could drive them to kill? Much of these ideas are played for fun but it is still something that struck me, especially at a time when we are dealing with a changing job market due to a global pandemic. 

But we are here to talk about Dorine, so why does she kill people? Her killing spree starts with a simple accidently death that she just happens to witness but it is clear that it unlocks something in her, something that she had forgotten about long ago. In this case it seems that Dorine kills out of loneliness. She is a meek, frizzy haired presence at her office who is typically the butt of many jokes. Her co-worked Kim (Molly Ringwald)  makes fun of her ceaselessly. When people in the office begin to go missing she is the first to suspect Dorine. I mean she is not wrong, but Kim is such a bully and so cruel to those around her it is very hard to sympathize with her, even when everyone begins to think she is crazy. The only people that show some sympathy and try to be friendly with Dorine are Nora (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and her partner Daniel (Michael Imperioli). Nora acknowledges that Dorine has been with the company longer than anyone and probably has much wisdom that she can bestow upon them. While this friendship helps Dorine get out of her shell, Nora’s dirty deeds come to the surface and make her a victim to Dorine’s rage. She realizes that Nora has been stealing money from the company and putting everyone's jobs on the line, and is the cause of many people's misfortune. It seems though her focus is mainly on those who wronged her, she also has a moral code and feels like she needs to help her fellow co-workers who are being wronged by their greedy supervisors. 

The film shows us how a quiet girl like Dorine could suddenly become a vicious serial killer. We get flashbacks of Dorine’s childhood that help us to gain insight into why she has become the person she is. She had a difficult family life and it alludes to the fact that her father is a pedophile that takes more of an interest in her than a father should. This also made for a strained relationship with her mother whom she still lives with in the present day. In one of the flashbacks we see that the family was involved in a car accident and it is later revealed that Dorine made them get into an accident so she could do away with her abusive father. It makes connections for Dorine that once people die, the pain they inflict stops. So when her nasty co-worker accidentally dies in front of her, she is reminded what it takes to make the pain go away. When they are dead they can become malleable like toy dolls. They can’t make fun of her or hurt her, and in turn she can care for them. While loneliness seems to be the main driving force it also seems that Dorine is seeking freedom from those that hurt her. 

As far as how Dorine is viewed by others, she is portrayed as a lonely-eccentric aunt type of figure. Either her co-workers ignore her, poke fun at her, or they pity her. She seems uninterested in dressing up, maintaining relationships, or trying to exchange pleasantries with those around her. While her budding friendship Nora seems like it has the potential to finally give her one healthy relationship, Nora’s greed ruins it. In her early attempts to be friendly Nora lets her take some of her old hand-me-downs, and she begins to wear some of the items she gets from her victims. She begins to open herself up to the world around her. But some of it becomes unhealthy as well, like  how she develops a crush on Nora’s partner Daniel. She very lightly Single White Females her and goes so far as to try and seduce Daniel at the climax of the film. While Nora’s friendship is a major part of the transformation Dorine goes through, it is also this newfound murder hobby that helps Dorine transform into something new. She becomes a full fledged femme fatale–one who takes down meanies and capitalist assholes all at the same time. So in that way she is kind of a hero right?

Dorine’s transformation seems very much in line with the transformation we see in another lady killer I recently discussed,  May in the film May. Both characters come off as weird but sympathetic. There is also something that draws people to them, even if it is simply pity. They are fragile creatures that we want to protect from the evils of the world; be it terrible men, terrible jobs, or terrible families. They deserve to come out of the cocoon of awkwardness and oppression and take up space and agency in the world. I mean again totally not condoning murder, but if capitalist bigs and bad boyfriends are the victims, then the murderess can’t be all bad right? In the end Dorine leaves her den of dead co-workers and her dead mother and burns it to the ground. We see her drive off into the distance with a brand new look and a job listing sitting in the passenger's seat. She has discovered who she is and she is open to creating a new life, and punishing those who hurt her and others. She no longer needs coddling or protecting because she can take care of herself.