Review: Random Acts of Violence

A self-serious take on the slasher format with attempted social commentary, Random Acts of Violence isn’t at all what I was expecting. I was shocked to find that its violence made my stomach turn, and anything that can break through my wall of desensitization deserves, at the very least, a recommendation. 

Todd Walkley’s (Jesse Williams) bestselling horror comic Slasherman is coming to an end. Todd, his girlfriend Kathy (Jordana Brewster), his manager Ezra (Jay Burachel), and his assistant Aurora (Niamh Wilson), head out on the road in order to drive to a comic festival in New York where they’ll do press for the final issue. Todd is struggling to find his ending and hopes the road trip will lead to inspiration. On the other hand, Kathy is hoping the trip will help her research her book about the real serial killer who inspired Todd’s Slasherman character. Upon arriving in the town that the real-life killer once terrorized, bodies begin piling up, and the crime scenes look suspiciously like panels from Todd’s comics. 

Good lord, this movie is violent. Not in a hokey slasher movie sort of way either. This isn’t Friday the 13th Part VI at all. It’s more reminiscent of Fincher’s Zodiac during a couple of its violent scenes. It’s meant to be upsetting and brutal, not inventively wacky. 

The death sequences have an empathy to them. Director Jay Baruchel treats the film’s victims with respect and dignity, not by shying away from the horror of the moment but by making you look at it. I genuinely felt unnerved and sickened by what I saw. I have seen much more grisly and elaborate stuff, but this was different. The killer repeatedly has to psych himself up in order to take life. He winces. He has to overcome his own moral barriers in order to kill. I would have never guessed this detail would have upset me like it did, but that’s exactly what happened. Something about this felt real, and in turn made what followed feel all the more sinister. 

This strong choice is in service of the movie’s attempted messaging. However, what the film wants to get at is an underwritten rehash of senate hearings about “the effects of video game violence”. The murderer in the film carries out his killings by referencing the protagonist’s comic books, therefore it makes sense to mention the oft-debated notion that violent media for “violence sake” is liable to cause someone to engage in violent behavior and inspire them to do harm. This poses an interesting opportunity for the film to craft some kind of message and make a stance on this idea, but it merely grazes the surface. In fact, it only seems to enforce the too-simple message that violent media breeds violence. Placing blame solely on the head of media violence has always felt like passing the buck. The movie appears to be trying to ask questions of its own genre. It tries to find out what horror’s role is in real life violence. But, this is all so unexplored that the only thing that comes across is the assumed negative impact violent media has on society. The idea of a slasher movie holding other slasher films accountable for their content is interesting—after all, a lot of the slasher giants have some pretty questionable things when viewed through a 2020 lens. However, Random Acts of Violence isn’t quite the movie to do it. To successfully critique the entirety of the horror film industry (hell, all of media in general) and its relationship with violence, it would require a lot more examination and more to say. It doesn’t need to have answers per say, but it would need to have more detailed questions to raise. However, what comes across instead is more surface-level than the topic should warrant.

The movie’s plot is fairly minimal. It begins as a road movie of sorts, but never really commits to that archetype. Todd’s inability to find his ending is very heavily set up in the beginning only to be pretty well abandoned until the end. Again, it’s a neat idea to play with, but ultimately doesn’t get enough time to be worked out. A lot of the issues that our characters are going through are rather melodramatic, especially Todd and Kathy’s fights over her book about the real life killer’s victims.

Once the slasher plot takes center stage the movie works much better. You get the feeling that these elements were here for flavor rather than actually being true subplots with their own point and importance. From here on I found myself watching a pretty good slasher movie with nausea-inducing murders and an attempt to wrestle with the violence necessary to make a movie like this. It’s decently engaging in that respect.

Once we find ourselves at the movie’s end, any audience member will no doubt find themselves a little confused as to what is happening. The ultimate reveals of the movie are vague and confusing, lacking proper set up. I don’t think that I was unable to follow the movie; I think the movie didn’t properly give all the tools necessary to make connections at the end. The ending is still effective. It just may not be satisfying from a purely plot-based perspective. With that in mind, the movie is appropriately dark and weighty once the credits roll though, and I think you will find yourself pleasantly surprised that they did not betray the movie’s foreboding tone.

Conclusion

Random Acts of Violence is a surprisingly upsetting slasher that tries to comment on the artist’s role in the violence of society. It doesn’t quite have this conversation effectively, but I give it marks for trying. Its truly horrific murder sequences shine despite some lackluster plotting and set up. All in all, I didn’t think that I would be enjoying a serious take on a slasher film in 2020, and that’s worth noting.