Office Killer

Plot

Photographer Cindy Sherman, who often uses motifs from exploitation films in her work, pays witty tribute to slasher films in this satiric horror-comedy. Dorine Douglas (Carol Kane) has spent 16 years at the bottom of the totem pole as a copy editor for Constant Consumer magazine when, due to budget cuts, she's downsized into a contract employee and forced to work out of her home. Dorine isn't at all happy about this, and when she's called back into the office to help obnoxious writer Gary (David Thornton) fix a glitch in his computer, she's not at all upset when he's accidentally electrocuted. Dorine brings Gary's corpse home to join her in front of the TV. When pushy publisher Virginia (Barbara Sukowa) orders Dorine and overly ambitious Kim (Molly Ringwald) to salvage Gary's story from his notes, Dorine snaps, and soon Gary has some company in Dorine's increasingly crowded home office. Office Killer also stars Jeanne Tripplehorn and Michael Imperioli as more of Dorine's co-workers. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Review

Carol Kane has often played cutesy in her career, from Taxi to Scrooged to The Princess Bride. But in this deliciously tongue-in-cheek horror romp, photographer-turned-director Cindy Sherman guides her star into a deeply weird place where amusing tics and cartoon gore go hand-in-hand with rich psychological shadings. Kane, clad in drab officewear and thick glasses, plays put-upon worker bee Dorine like a cross between Sally Field's bespectacled schizophrenic from Sybil and her own primate-clubbing nutter from The Mafu Cage. Of course, Office Killer isn't simply a vivid portrait; it's also a queasily gripping story, conceptualized by Sherman and Elise MacAdam and co-written by director Tom Kalin, whose own Swoon displayed a similar knack for stylized violence. From her 1970s Untitled Film Stills to more recent photos riffing on the paintings of the old masters and playing with grotesque dolls and medical refuse, Sherman has leveraged B-movie archetypes into emotional insight and cultural comment, a feat she repeats here through the use of over-the-top horror tropes. Where Wes Craven's Scream ridiculed slasher flick clichés in a way that appealed to hip, seen-it-all youngsters, Sherman's angle is more subversive as she seeks to uncover the serial killer lurking inside the meek, the dispirited, and the neglected amongst us. In that undertaking, she couldn't have gathered a better supporting cast; everyone from '80s survivor Molly Ringwald to almost-superstar Jeanne Tripplehorn to frequent mobster Michael Imperioli plays the material with the perfect mixture of irreverent cheek and colorful terror. Kevin Thompson's vivid production design and Sherman's gift for framing comically vile tableaux guarantee that Office Killer is never less than visually arresting. That it's also such an entertaining embrace/critique of genre trappings is a testament to the narrative skills the first-time director has brought to the fore ever since she began her career as a conceptual photographer. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Cast

• Carol Kane - Dorine Douglas
• Molly Ringwald - Kim Poole
• Jeanne Tripplehorn - Norah Reed
• Barbara Sukowa - Virginia
• Michael Imperioli - Daniel

David Thornton - Gary Michaels; Mike Hodge - Landau; Alice Drummond - Dorine's Mom; Doug Barron - Ted

Credit

Ford Wheeler - Art Director, Jude Gorjanc - First Assistant Director, Cindy Sherman - Director, Merril Stern - Editor, James Schamus - Executive Producer, Ted Hope - Executive Producer, Tom Carouso - Executive Producer, John Hart - Executive Producer, Evan Lurie - Composer (Music Score), Randall Poster - Musical Direction/Supervision, Rob Benevides - Makeup Special Effects, Kevin Thompson - Production Designer, Russell Fine - Cinematographer, Pamela Koffler - Producer, Christine Vachon - Producer, Neil Danziger - Sound/Sound Designer, Todd Haynes - Dialogue Writer, Elise MacAdam - Screen Story, Cindy Sherman - Screen Story, Tom Kalin - Screenwriter, Elise MacAdam - Screenwriter

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