This is a bit of a dud, to be honest. The sort of film in love with the phrase "The Banality of Evil" without appreciating that the phrase has become, in itself, banal.
Tony wants to be a social-realist horror (sort of Mike Leigh meets Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), but can't really escape some of the more reactionary trappings of the genre; there's some near-homophobic stuff in here, and the people Tony murders in the main sort of 'had it coming', a'la Hannibal Lector. While those he doesn't (like his bizarrely trusting neighbour) should run a mile from him, but instead take this freakish-looking gent for granted. Meanwhile, the much-vaunted Matt Johnson soundtrack comprises little more than a few polite piano noodlings. Hardly 'Soul Mining.'
Though not especially distinguished, 1989's Dennis Nilsen biopic 'Cold Light of Day', achieves the whole notion of the 'murderous blank' with a greater degree of effectiveness and subtlety. For, as another killer, Mark David Chapman, might say, via JD Salinger, Tony's a bit of "a phony".
Tony wants to be a social-realist horror (sort of Mike Leigh meets Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), but can't really escape some of the more reactionary trappings of the genre; there's some near-homophobic stuff in here, and the people Tony murders in the main sort of 'had it coming', a'la Hannibal Lector. While those he doesn't (like his bizarrely trusting neighbour) should run a mile from him, but instead take this freakish-looking gent for granted. Meanwhile, the much-vaunted Matt Johnson soundtrack comprises little more than a few polite piano noodlings. Hardly 'Soul Mining.'
Though not especially distinguished, 1989's Dennis Nilsen biopic 'Cold Light of Day', achieves the whole notion of the 'murderous blank' with a greater degree of effectiveness and subtlety. For, as another killer, Mark David Chapman, might say, via JD Salinger, Tony's a bit of "a phony".