The Killer Inside Me
IFC Films | Release Date: June 18, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
14
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 27, 2014
The Killer Inside Me is tough, disturbing stuff: We're tagging along with a sociopath as he explains himself, reveals himself, works things out inside his head. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonWally HammondJul 27, 2014
There are other good performances to enjoy – notably from Koteas and Alba – but it’s Affleck who justifies the price of your ticket. Read full review
80
Empire Andrew MaleJul 27, 2014
As darkly disturbing as Jim Thompson's novel, this is a genuinely upsetting film that might also be Winterbottom's best. Not for everyone, but near-faultless all the same. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyJul 27, 2014
Taking a cold, cruel plunge into its sociopath’s world, Winterbottom’s latest genre swerve is an accomplished neo-noir. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 27, 2014
Like black coffee that's flung in our face, The Killer Inside Me silences the question of whether it's good or bad. But for darn sure, it's strong. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. MusettoJul 27, 2014
Disturbing but very watchable noir. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 27, 2014
The movie does Thompson proud. It's a scorcher. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJul 27, 2014
The Killer Inside Me isn’t for everyone, and even some people who think it’s their sort of thing might be offended. But it’s too well made to dismiss outright for its twisted cruelty. Maybe that’s a compliment, maybe not. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 27, 2014
Winterbottom's adaptation of the novel is spellbinding cinema, with all the atmosphere, technical excellence and expert pacing the British director is known for. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJul 27, 2014
In the end, his deadliest weapon turns out to be other people’s trust, something with grimmer philosophical implications than all his acts of violence combined. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 27, 2014
The Killer Inside Me may be the darkest film noir ever made. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayJul 27, 2014
Affleck is the perfect actor for this role, though he’s a little too mush-mouthed to do the voiceover narration required of a noir. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineBill WeberJul 27, 2014
The result isn't drama so much as a waking nightmare of play-acting and predestined doom. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 27, 2014
The reader of a pulp crime thriller might be satisfied simply with the prurient descriptions, and certainly this film visualizes those and has as its victims Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson, who embody paperback covers, but the dominant presence in the film is Lou Ford, and there just doesn’t seem to be anybody at home. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 27, 2014
Looks great and has some raw, unsettling moments, but the overall impression is of a production that fails to achieve what it sets out to do. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 27, 2014
The Killer Inside Me is a particular distillation of male hate, as practised by repulsive and inadequate individuals who have been encouraged to see themselves as essentially decent by virtue of the trappings of authority in which they have wrapped themselves. And Winterbottom is tearing off the mask. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 27, 2014
Affleck is playing someone split down the middle, but we're stuck seeing only one side of him. Read full review
55
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJul 27, 2014
Winterbottom’s version goes too far. Read full review
50
NPRScott TobiasJul 27, 2014
A streamlined script might have helped. Curran and Winterbottom lose themselves in the soupy business of union shenanigans, an internal investigation and Lou's intervention in a troubled boy's life, but the added complications -- and the talk, talk, talk they require -- take away from the disquieting core of Thompson's story. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 27, 2014
Beyond Affleck's, the performances here lack amplitude and dramatic impact. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthyJul 27, 2014
A film that should but doesn't get under your skin and give you the creeps. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 27, 2014
Good-looking but not very effective adaptation of the seedy classic by "Grifters" author Jim Thompson. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. HobermanJul 27, 2014
This withholding actor's (Affleck) impish smile and mild, pale-eyed stare--not to mention the Clintonesque hoarseness with which he spins his convoluted lies--are sufficiently convincing to keep The Killer Inside Me from being just a steamy, stylish, punishing bloodbath. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 27, 2014
The film is crisply shot, expertly paced, solidly acted, and it gets a goose when Bill Pullman shows up in the late innings as a good-old-boy lawyer. (By contrast, it’s never convincingly explained what stake the union official played by Elias Koteas has in the drama.) All that’s missing is a reason. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 27, 2014
Michael Winterbottom’s nasty and uneven adaptation of Jim Thompson’s surpassingly mean little crime novel. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazinePam GradyJul 27, 2014
Thompson's brutality and misogyny are on full display, but it is too slick, there is little suspense or energy, and the whole affair has a curiously embalmed quality. Read full review
40
The TelegraphSukhdev SandhuJul 27, 2014
[A] minor and distinctly unchilling fare. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 27, 2014
Winterbottom’s inability to bring off this lurid stew of sex and violence is one problem; his (mis)direction of Affleck is another. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 27, 2014
The Killer Inside Me is hardly uninteresting, and you get the sense that everyone involved tried really hard to pull off this difficult adaptation. But it would be impossible to view The Killer Inside Me as anything but a vast miscalculation. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliJul 27, 2014
It looks spiffy. It has an attractive cast. Marcel Zyskind's cinematography seethes and shines. And it's a crock. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJul 27, 2014
This movie is so staggeringly violent and stomach-souring disgusting that when it screens, it is occasionally greeted with boos and almost always accompanied by massive audience walkouts. Don't say I didn't warn you. Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 27, 2014
A film that reduces everything and everyone in its well-worn path to a pretentious trope and, in its final Grand Guignol moments, high camp. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 27, 2014
Little more than torture porn tricked out in art-house finery. That is the bigger crime here. Read full review
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