If you’re like me, you’ve seen enough shorts and features alike about mobsters. With the international success of films like Pulp Fiction, it seems that Mafia fever has swept the world over. The only problem is that up and coming filmmakers have driven this genre into the ground. That’s probably why Killer received so little audience reaction at this festival.
Here’s the gist of the story. A hitman takes his final assignment, to kill a powerful mobster, only to be literally driven into the fiery depths of hell for his actions. While waiting for the call to proceed with his assignment, the hitman dreams of the kill. The problem is that, in the dream, the target refuses to die, no matter how many times he is shot. The phone call to proceed awakens him and he goes to carry out the deed. As in the dream, the Mafia boss will not die. He’s shot multiple times and even set on fire, but he keeps coming back to haunt the hitman. Eventually it’s revealed that the boss was sent to deliver the hitman to hell.
I admit the whole hell element is a new twist, but this short’s genre conventions were an overall disappointment.
