You Might Be the Killer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

You Might Be the Killer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 26, 2019

You Might Be the Killer is Director Brett Simmons' creative stab at meta-horror. The film takes place in contemporary times but is very much rooted in the 80s Slasher style. Its primary influence is the Friday the 13th series, but rather than simply follow a masked, faceless villain tracking down camp counselors to kill, the film gives the killer a face, doubts, fears, and ultimately an awareness of what he is doing and why. And he doesn't want to kill. No, an ancient mask compels him to carry outs its nefarious deeds, to put itself on his face, carry a blade, and do its dirty work. It's not a story of revenge like Friday the 13th but rather a story of an unwilling slasher who kills because he must, not because he wants. Simmons, who co-wrote the script with Covis Berzoyne and Thomas P. Vitale, crafts a love letter to the genre, a movie which is very aware of genre tropes which are seamlessly, enjoyably, and purposefully interwoven into the story.

He may be, he could be...

Sam Wescott (Fran Kranz) is one of about a dozen counselors working at Camp Clear Vista. When he shares the legend of a dangerous mask that is supposedly buried nearby, he and his fellow counselors go on a treasure hunt to find it. When it is found, Sam puts it on and immediately kills the girl he's with. The mask, which whispers "killkillkill" (or some variation thereof) over and over in his head, leads him to begin a massacre on one particularly bloody night. When Sam is able to remove the mask from his face, he begins to realize that he may be responsible for the night of bloodshed. That is confirmed when he calls his friend Chuck (Alyson Hannigan), a woman well versed in Horror trope. As Sam efforts to resist the mask and avoid being killed by his would-be victims, the pieces fall into place for a final showdown with a virginal camp counselor.

The intermixing of meta awareness, humor, and classic Horror beats serves the movie well. You Might Be the Killer is a fully realized, breezy, and lovingly made movie that knows its stuff forwards and backwards, inside and out, and skillfully intermixes all of its components with flair, flavor, and even heart (and blood and guts, too). It's not the first film to unmask the killer -- there's a little bit of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon in here -- and it may be the best film since Scream to so precisely and engagingly explore the Slasher film from all angles and with so much precision, glee, and mastery of its components, making the rulebook, not the killer, priority one.

The film certainly handles its various components well in isolation, too. The Horror scenes, with Sam as the masked killer slicing and dicing various camp counselors, are played fairly straight with a slight edge of humor. They do evolve as the story progresses and Sam both realizes what he is doing and why he is doing it. These scenes are presented in a quasi-nonlinear fashion, and fans always know where the are at in the story by how many counselors have been killed. While the film's doesn't keep a running tally on the screen, various graphics -- red and wobbly and scratchy -- do pop up whenever a kill is made to help the viewer keep count and maintain chronological awareness. The Horror scenes are plenty gory, most of them dark and hard to see in their "full glory," but everything from basic impales to a head split like a log, from eviscerations to a head repeatedly slammed in a refrigerator door, are amongst the highlights.

Most of the secondary characters are not fully defined and the acting is neither here nor there, but there's certainly at least as much characterization around the periphery as the film needs and as the genre usually demands and allows. Fran Kranz is good as Sam, the camp counselor going through an inner metamorphosis that leads him to do outwardly nasty things. With the mask off, he's a personable, and obviously frightened, young man who is primarily tasked with speaking into a cell phone. Beyond a handful of flashbacks he appears slathered in blood, even when he's not hacking and slashing and disemboweling. Fan favorite Alyson Hannigan plays, essentially, the voice of the audience, the woman tucked safely away at a hobby shop where she's able to fill Sam in on the details of his destruction from afar. She's a fountain of information, the Horror fan who immediately recognizes that Sam's situation is not coincidental but is rather following a set of established ground rules that is driving him to kill and, more importantly, setting up one of his fellow counselors to kill him at the end. Speaking of, there's a nice little twist in the climax and another one in the film's final shot that hopefully portends a sequel, which might very well embrace a different Horror sub-genre to toy with.

You Might Be the Killer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

You Might Be the Killer features a very agreeable look of film that reinforces the 80s structural vibe. The image has been altered to include title wobble and the occasional scratch and speckle, but it's not overdone and most of these manufactured flaws only really appear when the film keeps track of deaths, etc. in large, red-colored on-screen graphics. Texturally, the movie looks great. Facial clarity is wonderful and visible details in well-lit locations, whether the comic book shop where Chuck works or some of the camp cabins, look amazing, particularly in terms of structural and production design clarity and detailing. Lower light scenes, such as the many nighttime exteriors around the camp, hold firm but obviously cannot reveal highly intricate visuals with the lighting constraints. Still, basic character, terrain, and tree shapes and definition are fine in context. Colors are heathy, perhaps a little faded by design. Blood is often seen in darker scenes but looks great while colors around the comic shop spring to life and give the location a diversely colorful appearance. The blood red titles and numbers are arguably the color highlight. Skin tones are true and black levels are very deep. At the 8:45 mark, viewers will see a fairly heavy barrage of macroblocking on the killer's black jacket, but such is the only real encode issue of note.

You Might Be the Killer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

You Might Be the Killer's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack handles every sonic element very well. One of the most prominent features is ambience, which is often amplified in volume but still very natural and immersive. Insect and bird noises emanate from all over, creating a seamless fill that sounds larger than the 5.1 channels afforded to the track. Likewise, as the voices in Sam's head swirl about, clarity remains excellent as it defines the whispery, airy details that emanate from all over. Music is healthy in width and clarity. Various sounds of horror, such as slashing blades and squishy viscera, draw the listener into the movie's scares. Dialogue is clear and center positioned.

You Might Be the Killer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

You Might Be the Killer's only supplement is an audio commentary track with Filmmakers Brett Simmons and Thomas P. Vitale. The pair discuss the film's pace, nonlinear structure, cast and characters, story origins from a popular Twitter thread, plot details, shooting locations, grind house visual influences, and much more. This is a very agreeably delivered and highly insightful track. Fans will definitely want to give it a listen. The disc also includes two non-skippable trailers upon disc insertion for Blue Iguana and Josie. No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not appear to ship with a slipcover.

You Might Be the Killer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You Might Be the Killer might just be one of the best Horror movies of recent years. It's a wonderful little film that both deprecates the Horror genre and worships it at the same time. It's funny, bloody, and creative despite its rather strict adherence to basic genre tropes. No doubt most Horror fans are going to have a great time with it. Screen Media's Blu-ray is quite good, delivering first-class 1080p video, an excellent 5.1 channel lossless soundtrack, and a very strong audio commentary track. Highly recommended.