When it comes to serial killers, it is common media develops tons of documentaries, TV series and movies to be made based on the heinous events they commit by publicizing their motives, modus operandi, and life story to understand how they got to that point. But in the case of Killer Concept, everything seems to indicate that not even the murderer knows what they’re doing and prefers to take notes from the same group of people who want to write about the killer’s life.

Three writers are developing a script that tells the story of the recent murders in their town. Everyone knows the general information about the homicides that has been detailed by the media and police department, but one of them knows more than the rest— because one of them is the murderer. Unfortunately for they, the killer is not good at what they do and uses creative sessions to improve their brand at the risk of raising suspicions. Will they be able to discover who is the hooded person who stalks the nights before the script is finished or will it be an open-ended film to lead to a sequel?

Killer Concept does have a killer concept— sadly, it is poorly executed. Despite maintaining a central plot, it has three events that are treated in blocks, which makes the story a bit tedious and episodic instead of creating a complex mystery that leaves the audience questioning at all times if the murderer will ever be discovered or not even if we already know their name and face. From the first to the second act, the focus of the plot changes completely, where the writing creative sessions go into the background to give rise to a criminal investigation that they themselves prove to have no interest later on except for one character that forgets about it and picks it back up for the final part of the film. By the third act, the film begins to focus on the life of the murderer, but by this point everything seems so rushed that it is difficult to understand why we should care about their life when so little is known and the killer doesn’t even know what they want.

Excluding the plot that is more disaster than luster, I must emphasize the performance of all the cast because it is surprisingly good. Each one maintains the profile that was given to them without suddenly changing their essence, even when the plot turns out to be uneven. At times it reminded me a lot of the Scream 3 backstory with a bit of the motifs from Urban Legends: Final Cut— just as a concept, not for its execution.

Killer Concept sounds good in theory but the execution could’ve been improved. The story is promising but it does not prove to be well planned and it becomes more confusing on its own than the murderer confuses their motives with goals and purposes. It is clear to the viewer that there is not much to wait for this poorly planned mess, but it could have been focused more on keeping the thread than on keeping quantity over quality.

6 OUT OF 10 NECKLACES