The killer inside me

Sheriff's assistant Lou Ford is one of the "pillars of society" in his little Texas town: conscious, patient, respectful. But few people know that under the mask of a decent citizen is hiding a sociopath with strange sexual inclinations. Once, when Lou was still a teenager, his stepbrother Mike caught him raping a five-year-old girl, took the blame and went to prison. After his release, Mike gets a job and dies at a construction site from an accident. Lou, an assistant to the sheriff, has an affair with a prostitute Joyce Lakeland, who is dating the local rich man Elmer, despite the fact that he already has a bride, Amy Stanton. Gradually, Lou's madness is getting worse by the day. First, he kills Elmer, beats up, he believes, to the death of Joyce and puts all the blame for the murder on her. Lou's colleagues are already beginning to suspect him and inform him that Joyce is dead. Then he kills his bride, beating her and blaming the other for her death. At the end of the film, Lou is miraculously survived by his mistress, Joyce. She says she loves him. Then Lou, also confessing her love, stabs her with a knife. His colleagues open fire, and suddenly the house explodes: knowing in advance that he is doomed, Lou filled the house with explosives.

• Casey Affleck - Lou Ford
• Jessica Alba - Joyce Lakeland
• Kate Hudson - Amy Stanton
• Ned Beatty - Chester Conway
• Tom Bauer - Bob Maples
• Elias Coteas - Joe Rothman
• Simon Baker - Howard Hendrix
• Bill Pullman - Billie Boy Walker
• Liam Aiken - Johnny Pappas

Several filmmakers have tried to film Thompson’s novel since the mid-1950s. Studio 20 Century Fox acquired the rights to film adaptation and tried to launch the project into production since 1956. Marilyn Monroe , Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando should have starred. However, after the unexpected death of Monroe in 1962, work on the project was halted. The first adaptation of the novel by Thompson was released in 1976, Stacey Keach starred as Lou Ford, and Susan Tyrell as Joyce.

In the mid-1980s, another attempt was made to film The Killer Within Me, this time Tom Cruise , Brooke Shields, and Demi Moore were to play the main roles. However, this project has not received further development. In the mid-1990s, after the success of the Pulp Fiction , Quentin Tarantino was interested in making a new version of the novel with Brad Pitt and Uma Thurman in the lead roles. But after the terrorist act of September 11, the shooting of the film was canceled, as the script contained many cruel scenes.

In 2003, Andrew Dominic wrote a new script for “The Murderers Inside Me” and was originally supposed to be the director of the future film, but he soon lost interest in this project and preferred to direct the film “ How Cowardly Robert Ford Killed Jesse James ” ^[1] .

The film premiered on January 24, 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival ^[2] . In January of the same year, IFC Films acquired the rights to rent paintings in the United States for one and a half million dollars ^[3] and announced a theatrical release for June 9, 2010 ^[4] . The film took part in the competition program of the 60th Berlin Film Festival ^[5] ; it was also shown as part of the Tribebek Film Festival on April 27, 2010 ^[6] . The picture was released in limited rental June 18, 2010 ^[7] .

The film received mixed reviews from film critics. According to the Rotten Tomatoes website, 54% of the 114 reviews were positive ^[8] .

• The Killer Within Me (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• "The killer is inside me" (eng.) On the site Rotten Tomatoes