The Anatomy of Monsters, 2014.
Directed by Byron C. Miller.
Starring Tabitha Bastien, Jesse Lee Keeter, Conner Marx, Keiko Green and Asher Vast.
SYNOPSIS:
Aspiring murderer Andrew lures a seemingly innocent woman back to a room in a seedy motel intending to make her his latest victim. However, much to his surprise, his intended victim Sarah is a murderer herself, and a much more prolific one at that. Sarah soon attempts to turn the tables on her attacker, telling him the story of her life and what led her down the path of murder and death, in a twisted mental game of cat and mouse.
Serial killers are certainly a fascinating subset of society. We wonder what makes them tick, what happened to them in their lives and why they are driven to commit such horrific acts on innocent people.
This attempt to understand the evil nature of serial killers has been examined in novels, TV shows, non-fiction books, documentaries and of course film.
Peering into the dark hearts of killers is often achieved with mixed success, sometimes with fascinating results like the Hannibal franchise, and sometimes with films like the subject of today’s review, the psychological horror The Anatomy of Monsters – a film which attempts to tackle this dark subject and completely trips up at every chance.
This being a low-budget film made by an amateur filmmaker and likely starring his friends and family, I’m hesitant to tear the film to pieces – I mean it’s not likely I could do any better with the same limited resources.
The acting from the film’s relatively small cast is nothing to write home about, with Tabitha Bastien as Sarah very much trying to channel her inner Hannibal Lecter with her monologues about her twisted past. But the film’s terrible script undermine her attempts to scare and intrigue, and it’s not helped by her delivery making her character almost cartoonishly evil, to the point that all she’s missing is a moustache to twirl.
Jesse Lee Keeter as fellow psychopath Andrew is no better, portraying his character in a manner that, to me at least, seems to be trying to channel Dexter Morgan or Patrick Bateman. But Keeter’s flat delivery leaves much to be desired, with his performance rendering the potentially interesting character of a conflicted killer incredibly boring.
The plot, while potentially an interesting one, is somehow rendered utterly boring, being filled with clichéd monologues about twisted childhoods spent harming animals, and schoolyard fights ending in eye stabbings.
The dialogue is pretty cringe inducing at times also, such as a description Sarah gives in describing how she will cut Andrew’s throat, an overlong monologue within which she feels necessary to mention that he will also wet himself while he bleeds to death. Or a strange half heard, (the music drowns much of it out), story told by Sarah’s clueless boyfriend that somehow involves defecating in a urinal and ecstasy.
The lead characters are not particularly likeable, and while them being serial killers this is perhaps appropriate, but the film doesn’t exactly make up for this by making them particularly interesting to listen to either.
The Anatomy of Monsters certainly attempts to tell an interesting story about the psychology of killers, but it completely fails at it.
The acting performances range from so over the top in depicting the evil nature of the characters that they might as well be cartoons or so understated to the point that a wooden block would make for a better performer. The performances are not helped by the film’s awful script, which is weighed down with clichéd monologues, laughably bad lines, and overly pretentious ruminations.
If you want a better film that examines serial killers and their motivations, check out Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990), Man Bites Dog (1992), or American Psycho (2000). These are films which tackle the same issue of trying to understand a serial killers view on the world, but tell this story in much more innovative and interesting fashions.
As for The Anatomy of Monsters, however, is one monster that you should definitely avoid.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Graeme Robertson
Originally published November 13, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
