Jay Baruchel is perhaps best known as the affable friend to Seth Rogen in This is the End or the voice of Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon. But did you know that he directed a horror film called Random Acts of Violence? He did! And it’s my 11th (of 31) film of this year’s October spookymoviethonTM! I knew nothing about this one before finding it on Shudder. The description sounded ok and I thought, “Hey, I like that Canadian. I’ll give it a shot!” And I did. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Todd is a comic book creator whose main character is inspired by a real-life serial killer. His series is coming to an end, but he is having some writer’s block trying to figure out how to wrap things up. To combat this, he takes a road trip to the area where the killer did his crimes. His girlfriend, his assistant, and his publisher/financier tag along. Soon, grisly murders start happening in their path that exactly mirror kills that he drew in his comics. And he keeps getting cryptic calls from a man who just repeats different three number sets. He and his friends need to find the connection between the calls and the kills before it’s too late!
There are some cool things about Random Acts of Violence. The gruesome displays that the killer leaves behind are delightfully awful. Reminiscent of scenes that may be left behind by Hannibal Lecter. The mysterious calls are intriguing. The age-old question, “does art beget violence,” is explored with some nuance. But ultimately, Barushel delivers a middling road slasher with some faulty logic and a telegraphed reveal that fails to shock/surprise the viewer. One example involves the phone calls. When the calls start coming to Todd’s cell phone, the characters wonder how the killer or killer’s accomplice got the number. They hand wave it away with a ‘technology’ hypothesis but nobody considers that it might be someone close to them doing the killing. I won’t say if it is or not, but that’s what I would think in their situation. Another example is with the killer’s behavior when we see him attack the first victims. It doesn’t jibe with the character once we learn who it is. One thing that I think could have worked really well was a better use of the red herring. The device is employed but not given enough weight for the audience to really take the bait. What we’re left with is a low budget kill reel with an amateurish story. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either.
The Final Cut: Random Acts of Violence is a straightforward story with some paper thin logic. The creative kills make it watchable but it’s probably not going to end up on anyone’s top ten lists.
No Real Danger 