Random Acts of Violence, fittingly, came out of nowhere. Until about a month ago I didn’t know the Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti comic had been adapted and now it is streaming on the horror themed service Shudder. Even more surprising is who was a primary force behind the film, Jay Baruchel, who: directed, co-wrote, produced, and plays a supporting role in the film. The suddenness of Violence is, initially, to the films benefit as there was no time to set expectations. This isn’t a major studio blockbuster that is dated four years in advance and consistently marketed for two of them, it’s an independent horror film based on a relatively obscure graphic novella of the same name. Going in the force was curiosity, what would a low budget slasher film from Baruchel, with cinematography by Karim Hussain, look like? To their credit visually they get a lot out of the film turning it into a kaleidoscope of surrealism, graphic art, and B-horror aesthetics. Violence is a strange blend of Rob Zombie’s second Halloween film and Ang Lee’s Hulk. It isn’t perfectly balanced, at one moment the moon and resulting lighting appear green for no discernible reason, but there is a willingness to at least try and make something visually interesting or moody occur at all times. The filmmakers involved show a strong understanding of how to make a low budget horror film and make it look better than it really is.
Random Acts follows Jesse Williams as Todd Walkley, the writer of independent comic sensation “Slasherman.” Todd along with his partner, played by Jordana Brewster, assistant Aurora(Niamh Wilson), and business partner played by Baruchel, decide to go on a road trip as Walkley searches for the proper way to end his story. Along the way they come into contact with fans, eccentric locals, and maybe the real I-90 killer his comic is based on. It’s a simple plot, but this 80-minute film doesn’t need much. For their part the cast do an able job with the material they’re given. They are largely asked to create a sense of comradery and friendship, which comes across. Jesse Williams casting is well done, but he is stuck in an awkward emotive space between playing into the dumb masculinity often found in these sorts of movies and the sensitivity beneath the act. As the film works through the surrealist imagery that makes up his psyche the film does, classically, most of the acting for him yet when we cut back to his expression it comes across as vacant as the Kuleshov effect fails to fully take hold.
Visually Baruchel and the production team punch above their weight. The films road trip plot is easily grafted onto the episodic routine of a slasher film. Making the moments where the film sets up a space for reflexive commentary and falls short the most frustrating aspect of the film. While the idea of the success of “Slasherman” as an indie comic is, perhaps, the most unbelievable thing in the film writers Jesse Chabot and Jay Baruchel use it as a space to bring up some of the fandom aspects within superhero comics and horror films. Both narratives, now fully enmeshed in mainstream consumer culture, that leads to some potentially awkward lionization of characters like the Joker, Freddy Kruger, Negan etc. The film isn’t blatantly negative to fandom but there is a shocked fascination to a fans murder diorama. Early on the film draws this connection with the fascination, fandom, of real-life mass murders and the lack of recognition or historical acknowledgment their victims receive through Jordana Brewster’s role as Kathy who is writing a book about the victims of the I-90 killer. This stands in contrast to Todd’s ultimately ahistorical view of his work on “Slasherman.” Brewster and Williams chemistry comes through as their characters try to work through the tension and ambivalence of working with historically inspired fiction. Acts of Violence never goes fully into the New Nightmare realm of meta commentary, running out of time to make its own direct statement. The lack of a finished thought results in an ending that could easily be read nihilistically. I don’t think the final moments of the film, despite their visuals, is ultimately nihilistic but a willingness to exist in the liminality of ambivalence and leave it up to the viewer. The threat of nihilism and a poor ending, however, would have lessened if the films thematic perspective had been carried through the film more consistently.
As the film openly discusses the nebulous effects of violence and the representation of graphic content it foregrounds what content the viewer is actually seeing, which isn’t all that much. Out of the four main set pieces where the killer strikes viewers only really see two of them, the first in the last. Neither of which register as incredibly graphic or grotesque, my threshold could also be high. Both sequences primarily hinge on multiple stab wounds to people. What the viewer primarily sees is the aftereffects of violence, the visceral remains. There are bodies arranged in “artistic” fashion but outside of the momentary shock they just blend into the scenery. While the film is technically well done it was rarely shocking or horrifying. It plays the usual horror tricks in terms of sound design and goes for a couple of cheap and ineffective jump scares, but it never turned into horror. Random Acts of Violence plays more like a 90s thriller as Jesse Williams tries to project the psychological weight of Se7en in a film unequipped to carry it.
Expectations are a funny thing. I came into Random Acts of Violence without any and was mostly curious about the whole thing. It is an overall well-done movie that doesn’t overstay its welcome breezes along at 80 minutes of runtime. With the use of neon lighting, graphic effects, and surrealist imagery it breaks up what could be an otherwise generic movie into something on the verge of more. There are some interesting ideas that are voiced but ultimately too big for the film to fully work out. Todd Walkley is in search of an ending for his comic, afraid to deliver an unsatisfying one to his readership. By the end Random Acts of Violence finds an ending that isn’t entirely satisfying or unsatisfying, it just is.
