Karma is a bitch and many times the manifestation of payback can provide some truly blood drenched results. “KillerKiller” is not a horror film that started off on the right foot with me. The audio was pretty crummy and the story began like a typical slasher film, but as the story progressed, “KillerKiller” won me over. Not only is it a great little horror film, it’s a great survival film, and a very good branch off the “strangers in a house” sub-genre tree that soon becomes a fascinating glimpse at predator and prey formulas. In Higgins’ slasher mystery, the victim is the murderer and soon the killers will make for the body count. A horror movie of this gamut with such a low budget would usually fall flat on its head, but thankfully it doesn’t.
The cast of serial killers teamed together in an abandoned asylum forced to discover what or who is murdering them ends up very engaging with some interesting emphases on their rationalization, and back stories. When a group of killers being examined in an asylum awaken all alone with only their comrades at their sides, they have to find a way to escape, and deal with one another’s ticks and violent urges, all the while trying to think of a rational explanation for the increasing body count. Higgins turns the table on them tearing away the women in peril device in exchange for showing the violent monster discovering what true terror is with an unstoppable force always over their shoulders.
Danielle Laws is powerful as the blonde buxom avenging angel who gives the serial killers here a dose of their own medicine. “KillerKiller” is a film that easily could have been a repetitive bitter pill, but Higgins prefers to place his world in a middle purgatory with this woman named Helle brings these individuals in her own world. In often creative scenarios, Helle drags each man into their own worlds and tempts them to commit their own misdeeds. Two murderers who kill cheerleaders find themselves on a video shoot with a cheerleader, a doctor finds himself in front of a comatose woman, and a sexual fiend finds himself back in his room with a gorgeous blond prostitute and a drill.
“KillerKiller” takes such creative leaps and bounds with its limited scenery and obviously low budget and keeps things fresh from beginning to end. The character of Helle is one I’d definitely enjoy watching for two more movies; having this character stalk murderers upon summoning a la “Pumpkinhead” would definitely bring in a new breed of slasher film. But as a single installment, “KillerKiller” is a great karma based slasher film with very little going against it. And I thought “Hack/Slash” had the market cornered on a new twist in the slasher sub-genre. Pat Higgins’ “KillerKiller” slyly avoids all pitfalls and clichés of the slasher sub-genre in exchange for an entertaining and creepy little dose of revenge and fate coming into play.