Killer Book Club is a horror film about a group of youngsters who are picked off one by one after they were involved in a murder themselves. The movie is streaming on Netflix.
Story
A group of youngsters form a book club to discuss their love for the horror genre and books written within it. When one of them is assaulted by a professor, they decide to teach him a lesson but end up killing the professor instead.
The plan to keep it a secret but a stranger decides to punish them for their indiscretion by killing them off one by one and writing out a novel describing how they kill each victim.
The club tries to figure out who is taking them out but the killer remains elusive until only one of them remains.
Performances
The film is filled with archetypal roles but apart from Angela, the rest barely get to embody those roles effectively. Veki Vellila is good as the “final girl” but even her development is rushed at times.
Positives
The meta nature of the story inspired by the original “Scream” is good and occasionally specific tropes are called out openly. There is just enough mystery to support multiple theories, and that makes the film moderately interesting.
Negatives
The set-up right at the beginning is rushed, and that trend continues throughout the film. Eva and Koldo’s deaths are mere afterthoughts in the grand scheme of things.
The characters call out cliches and yet, some of the deaths could have been avoided with basic logical thinking or physical fitness. They are made to look like amateurs at the time of their deaths.
Nando’s sequence with the killer is unclear and whether that is by design or not is also not touched upon. Perhaps the killer wanted to raise suspicion about Nando or maybe it was an imaginary scenario, either way it is left to the audience to figure out with no other clues.
There is no attempt at originality or crafting something new to make the film a must-watch. Any casual fan of the slasher genre could predict the structure of the film from start to finish.
Verdict
Killer Book Club is a slasher film inspired by Scream, but apart from a slightly altered premise it fails to capture the essence of the cult classic. Weak characters, lazy tropes, and rushed story-telling are all issues that plague this horror adjacent movie.
