Not that bad for a very low budget movie the film American Killing does have a nice plot. However it cannot hold up midway through and tends to dip in the finale. Although most horror flicks are not high on the acting ability level, this one could have used more experienced talent.
Jeb (Treavor Peterson), the program creator and editor of the animated series “Ami and the Aliens”, gets called into a meeting and is told his series is tanking and needs to be upped to get his audience back. His producer suggests that at the upcoming mountain retreat that he needs to come up with 30 new scripts in the 30 days.
When the actors and writers assemble at the lodge and get settled, Jeb wants to start right away to get the scripts going. But, although they know it’s important to keeping their jobs; temperamental and recovering alcoholic Clark (Demetri Goritsas) is preoccupied as he’s having trouble with his wife, Natalie (Caitlin Gerard) and Billy(Christopher Wolfe) are having issues with their hooking up, Joan (Melinda Lee) is off in her own little world, and Raven (Persia White) has her sights set on bedding Billy.
It’s not too long before Jeb starts to see his team “slipping” away, especially since he has hidden cameras all over the lodge. Directors Matthew David Ward and Justyn Ah Chong keep their film moving along, but with hurry comes error and there turns out to be many. American Killing would have worked better had they raised a bigger budget, not made the film so predictable and it gets a bit too cheesy.
American Killing has not been rated by the MPAA, but contains sexuality, violence, gore and language.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Low budget and inexperienced acting brings it down. (1.5 out of 5 Stars)
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Trevor Peterson, Persia White, and Caitlin Gerard
Directors: Matthew David Ward and Justyn Ah Chong
MPAA Rating: Not Rated contains sexuality, language, violence
Genre: Horror
Running Time: 1 hr. 30 min.
Video Release Date: August 6, 2019
Language: English
Reviewed Format: DVD
Distributed by: High Octane Pictures
Released on: DVD and VOD
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
