Directed by Glenn Payne
Written by Casey Dillard
Starring Coley Bryant, Casey Dillard, Glenn Payne
Running time: 80 minutes
Premiered Aug. 30 at Frightfest

​​By Miguel Alejandro Marquez, Staff Writer

There’s a moment in every film school where someone comes up with the idea for a slasher film, or a piece of metafiction, or a story of somebody writing a story. It’s inevitable. It’s like death and taxes. Hell, even this humble critic is writing a feature about writing a feature.  

Killer Concept is all three.

Killer Concept is a film about three writers teaming up to write a screenplay chronicling a string of murders in their town, but one of the three is closer to the story than the others realize. It was filmed during quarantine with a cast and crew of five people, with no script, using improvised dialogue, and with just $900 of funding.

That’s an admirable feat.  

But there are problems with Killer Concept. The problems come with the story and the story’s structure. Obviously, this is from a lack of script. If you’ve ever taken a writing class, there is a rule of thumb that is pretty much golden. A story needs a character who will face an obstacle as they try to reach a goal. You need to have a character, you need to have a clear understanding of what they want, and, I cannot stress this enough, why they want it, and what stands in their way. The main character in Killer Concept is a problem. He’s irredeemable, and has no goal. Characters that are irredeemable, or do things with no reasoning, are boring. What’s the point of watching anything if it has no real impact on anything? If it teaches people nothing? The film’s story is loose and only devolves into something of substance in the last twenty minutes. Frankly, the film could have sped through the first half of the story and wouldn’t have lost that much in terms of content. 

To highlight some of the good attributes of the film, this critic has to say that Killer Concept was competently shot, especially during the scenes in the killer’s mancave and outside of the writing studio. Actor Casey Dillard (who also wrote the film) does an excellent job as Holly and delivers a strong performance. Holly is the only likable character.  She has goals, motivations, and an interesting relationship with the killer. The ending with her character was compelling and something that left this critic thinking about once the film was over.

Like a lot of film school movies, Killer Concept felt like an inside joke rather than a feature film for a mainstream crowd. Something to entertain a select few rather than being a vehicle for widespread entertainment. There are films, especially in the independent market, films that are self-funded or through crowdfunding, where the film is made only to highlight the cast/crew/director’s capabilities and skills. They’re calling card movies. Movies made under the guise of entertaining, but to also show the crew’s worth. They are the byproducts of an industry that demands people make something to show off. To have already established value in order to have the privilege of working in tinsel-town. Who’s to blame creatives? Who’s to blame the filmmakers behind Killer Concept? The film industry is rough and it’s hard to get your foot in the door, but don’t expect people to be impressed by your resumé movie.

It took three attempts for this critic to finish this movie.

This felt more of an exercise in the director creating something, rather than an attempt to make an engaging film, or tell something that mattered. The “no script” idea is interesting, and it’s admirable that they made this film for so little, but it comes to a point where the film’s behind-the-scenes were a detriment to the film’s story, and a person’s ability to care.