THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER-FREE.
by Jarrod Jones. When it comes to a low-budget slasher, I’m easy. Does it have a killer, a conga line of victims, and mayhem? Sign me up. The kills don’t need to be especially inventive, though when they are, boy, does it make my day. Whenever a filmmaker contrives bold new ways to splatter fake blood across a relatively clean surface, it’s transcendent. A well-executed kill is how horror movies flirt with immortality, how a small-budget horror show becomes a classic.
Immortality is not the aim of Jeff Knite’s The Omicron Killer, but I will have a hard time forgetting that I’ve seen it. On the surface, it looks like another COVID gripe, made during a time when making movies is an even bigger pain than they generally are. In it, characters keep pulling off their medical masks when they talk to each other, which feels like (hold on tight) commentary. The title and premise — a prolific serial killer dubbed “The COVID Killer” gets a copycat who keeps New York City in a perpetual state of panic — read like yet one more genre groaner about the politics and science of a pandemic that has disrupted our lives and still doesn’t know how to die. It’s definitely one of these things, but it’s also a little more, thank goodness.
The thing is, Knite’s movie is also a middle finger to aging slasher properties like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th — at one point, a killer clown says “Fuck you, Freddy!” to the camera — but it’s not particularly shocking or scary. The most memorable kill in the film is an exploitative shower sequence that doesn’t completely riff on Psycho yet is underwhelming in its execution just the same. There’s a character named Frueger, a portmanteau of “Freddy” and “Krueger,” which is about as dumb as these things should legally be allowed to get. Yet this movie’s sticking to my ribs! What’s going on here?
It’s not like the Omicron Killer (Paugh Shadow), that silent, hulking mass of killing frenzy, racks up a huge body count — he doesn’t. In fact, the kills are notably sparse, considering the material. The Omicron has exactly one groupie played by, of all people, Bai Ling, and we never quite grasp her attraction to him. (She disappears about a quarter of the way through.) His weapon of choice is a crowbar for no serious reason, and the most mileage he gets out of it is shoving the long end through a person’s skull.
It’s not the role that’s effective; it’s the performer. Shadow’s an imposing presence. There’s a bit where he snaps someone’s neck, and the way he does it is brutal and absurd, a nice pairing of words to describe The Omicron Killer in its better moments. Knite collaborates well with the actor and maximizes Shadow’s strengths — for instance, Knite knows when a good Omicron neck-breaking scene calls for an exposed spinal column. It’s a promising sign for future projects with their names attached to them.
As for the rest of The Omicron Killer… look. Of all the low-budget movies I’ve powered through in my life, I can truthfully say few rarely come with the scope that Knite brings to this. There’s a pair of subplots that absolutely do not need to be here, and the better of the two includes a pack of foul-mouthed kids. Removing it would have carved roughly four to five minutes off the 97-minute runtime, and it would have been both a benefit to the story and a shame to see it go. Knite gets at least one endearing performance out of this subplot — he’s a great director of actors, as it happens — and it gives Omicron a shagginess that most modern slashers would never bother with. Knite acquits himself just as well as an actor, playing a cop who likes The Flash and has amazing banter with fellow police played by Lynn Lowry and Johnny Careccia. Any scene with Knite shares with Careccia had me howling.
The movie biffs it hardest when Knite attempts to tee up his next big horror movie featuring a killer clown who seems to break the fourth wall à la Deadpool. His appearance comes with serious Zack Snyder Dawn of Justice vibes: the clown pops up in a dream sequence with Omicron, and it’s clear Knite is priming him for some kind of showdown with the killer in future installments. (Careccia also plays the clown, which means I’m obligated to check it out.) I’d suggest Knite rein it in and focus on his strengths instead of disrupting what is a fairly solid slasher just to launch his horror franchise, but the guy clearly has a vision and far be it from me to interfere. Throwing this much at the wall has unquestionably created a mess, but Knite’s attempt to make it presentable, even enjoyable, is almost impossible to dismiss.
3.5 / 10
The Omicron Killer premieres at the Laemmle Monica Film Center today.
Directed by Jeff Knite.
Written by Johnny Careccia, Jeff Knite, and Paugh Shadow.
Cinematography by Brad Reeb.
Starring Paugh Shadow, Johnny Careccia, Jeff Knite, Lynn Lowry, Rob Emmer, Felissa Rose, and Bai Ling.
Produced by Peter Apruzzese, Peter Castro, Jeff Knite, Paul Luba, Michael Pszczola, et. al.
Not rated. Contains boobs, blood, and bawdy banter.
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