By Patrick Bartlett (Twitter: @alleywaykrew)
“Random Acts of Violence” is in some ways exactly the movie I thought it’d be. It’s also the opposite of what I expected to see in just as many ways. I had never even heard of it before a matter of weeks ago when I saw the trailer for this Shudder exclusive during “The Last Drive-In”‘s summer special. It appeared to be pretty hardcore slasher movie with a cast featuring Jay Baruchel, Jordana Brewster, and Jesse Williams. That’s intriguing. When I looked further into it, I found out that Baruchel actually directed, co-produced and co-wrote it as well. Seeing as how I’ve been a fan of his since “Undeclared” and the only other movie he’s directed was the sequel to the hockey comedy “Goon” (which is about as far from this film as you can get), I ended up really excited to check this out. I became even more excited when I found out that the movie was based on a comic book by Justin Grey & Jimmy Palmiotti, legit heavyweights of late 2000s-era comics. Having all of this knowledge, I spent about a week waiting for Shudder to debut “Random Acts of Violence”. I was not disappointed.
I’m going to try to keep this as free from spoilers as possible but I do recommend you go in as blind for the best experience (well, “best experience” being subject to how much you like ultraviolent horror films). Having said that, there are few horror films these days that manage to pull off what this one does, especially as well as it does. It shouldn’t necessarily be impressive that a horror movie has characters that you actually care about interspersed among brutal kill scenes. Theoretically, that is what horror is really supposed to be. However, that sense of actually likable characters has faded away slowly during the heights of the slasher era and all but disappeared completely during the heyday of “torture porn”, so it’s a refreshing change of pace in 2020.
On a superficial level, sure, you’ve seen films like this before. Four people on a road trip encounter a psychopath who starts a killing spree with them at the center. They then get picked off one at a time. What sets “Random Acts of Violence” apart is that it’s not drunken college kids or horny teens being featured. These are adults; smart adults at that. You have Williams’ character of Todd, a successful comic creator trying to finally finish his popular “Slasherman” title. “Slasherman” is a comic book based on a serial killer known as the “I-90 Killer”, who terrorized for a period in the late ’80s to early ’90s before suddenly going dormant. You have Brewster’s character of Kathy, who is more than just the standard girlfriend role as she’s intent on learning as much as she can and writing the real story about the killer, no matter how that conflicts with her and Todd’s relationship. You have Baruchel’s character of Ezra, Todd’s friend and publisher, who clearly isn’t entirely on board with Todd finishing the series but is trying to be as supportive as he can be. Finally, you have Todd’s assistant, Aurora. Played by Niamh Wilson, she holds her own as an ambitious woman with plans and goals. There’s a shared affection between all of the characters, along with an underlying tension, that provides an edgy energy to the proceedings long before anyone dies a bloody death.
The cast is great and brings things to life beautifully but I have to say that I was incredibly impressed with Baruchel’s work as a director. He obviously wore a lot of hats here but while low budget slasher films aren’t exactly hard to come by… ones this thoughtful and artistic aren’t something you see all that often. As I said, I’m trying to avoid spoilers but there is not a lot of horror films, especially in the modern age that are asking real questions about the cyclical nature of art and violence, how deeply they can be connected, etc. The character of Todd clearly is not having fun making his book. Between the more disturbed members of his fanbase and the reality-based element of the stories he’s created, he’s not unhappy with the success but the accompanying darkness of “Slasherman” has taken its toll on him. Beyond that, the character of Kathy trying to tear back the glamour of the story that Todd has popularized and show the ugliness of the real story underneath. That concept is something that should be explored in horror more often. This is a horror film truly doing an exploration of the effects of horror and violence. When Todd talks about what he’s trying to do with his comic (“giving some medicine with the sugar”), is exactly what Baruchel is doing with the actual film as well and to great effect. I also have to point out that “Random Acts of Violence” is a comic book-based film that actually looks like how a comic would. It’s evocative of a film like George Romero’s original “Creepshow” in the most beautiful way, the color and lens choices made here help to create a disorienting quality, that some might not even notice, but absolutely bears mentioning.
The only real gripes I have with “Random Acts of Violence” are really just things about low budget films in general. The effects can be hit and miss (although most of the gore is well realized). The times, in the film, that CGI is used to illustrate the fictional comic book setting- I’m not going to say that I hated it but I also think that I have a different take on it than most would. The CGI comic book bits remind me a lot of the “Spider-Man” cartoon that MTV did in the early 2000s. I didn’t love all of the set design either but as I said, it’s not really a gripe because I understand that this isn’t the type of movie that’s going to be made for tens of millions of dollars and play on thousands of screens, so Baruchel and company just did what they had to do to bring the movie to life. Overall, I’d say they succeeded.
“Random Acts of Violence” is a brutal film. It’s not your typical fun slasher movie. It’s a rough watch. It’s worthwhile though. If you enjoy horror, yeah, it will basically give you what you’re looking for (plus more than you likely bargained for). If you don’t like horror, I would still recommend this film to anyone willing to watch it. It’s terrifying and it’s extremely violent but all of that is in service of observing where we are as a society, where we’re going, the effects of violence (both immediate and lingering), the power of art… I could go on and on but the point is that what could have been standard slasher film fare was made into something far deeper and greater than I had expected or hoped for. I’m genuinely really interested to see what Jay Baruchel does next, as a filmmaker, and I hope people are willing to give this one a viewing. It’s more rewarding of an experience than you may anticipate.
To find out where this film is available to stream, click here: Just Watch