{"id":620699,"date":"2026-09-19T05:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T05:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/620699\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T05:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T05:04:09","slug":"murderous-review-neil-labutes-stale-and-stagy-new-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/620699\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Murderous’ Review: Neil LaBute’s Stale and Stagy New Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBest-selling novels like Jean Hanff Korelitz\u2019s The Plot and stage thrillers like Ira Levin\u2019s Deathtrap, among many other works, have demonstrated that stealing another writer\u2019s work can have fateful if not deadly consequences. Neil LaBute<\/a> (In the Company of Men, Nurse Betty) delivers another variation on the familiar theme with his latest effort, receiving its world premiere at the Oldenburg Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaking place in a single location and featuring but three lead performers, Murderous carries a strong whiff of such LaBute-cited influences as Joseph L. Mankiewicz\u2019s Sleuth and Hitchcock\u2019s Rope. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t live up to those predecessors, feeling like an undernourished stage thriller whose plot machinations are far too obvious.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMurderous \t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tStagy and contrived.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVenue: Oldenburg International Film Festival
Cast: Gia Crovatin, Thomas Sadoski, Jordan Baker
Director-screenwriter: Neil LaBute
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 47 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe story, beginning with a first chapter titled \u201cHim,\u201d revolves around Marian (frequent LaBute collaborator Gia Crovatin), a filmmaker who made a splash with her debut effort, a femme-oriented horror film entitled \u201cMurderous.\u201d With her financial success signified by her gorgeously rustic home, a former mill, and the vintage red Porsche in her driveway, she\u2019s surprised one day by the unexpected arrival of Norman (Thomas Sadoski<\/a>), who announces that he wants to have a talk. And that he\u2019s driven all the way from Iowa to do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tClearly made uncomfortable by the intrusion, she eventually agrees to invite him in. It turns out that they were both students at the same time \u2014 he was a teacher\u2019s assistant, he reminds her \u2014 and had a brief romantic relationship. He compliments her expensive new home, commenting that she seems to have no personal items or photographs. What she does have are valuable knick-knacks previously owned by such famed writers as Truman Capote and Willa Cather. Not to mention Shirley Jackson\u2019s letter opener. It\u2019s a wonder she doesn\u2019t have Chekhov\u2019s gun on display.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter brief small talk in which Norman\u2019s sorry lot in life is made clear \u2014 he has no job and no girlfriend, he admits \u2014 he finally gets to the point.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDid you think I wasn\u2019t going to see it?\u201d he asks about her film that won awards and put her on the map. It turns out that he had originally devised the film\u2019s premise and the two had worked on the idea together and even collaborated on flipbooks of individual sequences, which he claims to still have \u201csomewhere\u201d in his possession. Needless to say, he thinks they need to come to some sort of agreement on compensation.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the tension, things, as they tend to do in LaBute\u2019s works, turn sexual. When he reminds her that she cheated on him during their relationship, she takes it as a cue.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIs that what you want to make up for things? A blow job?\u201d she asks. Norman thinks carefully for a moment before replying, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t hate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo reveal more about what happens next during the charged encounter would be too much of a spoiler. Suffice it to say that things end \u2026 abruptly.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother unexpected visitor, this time an older woman, arrives in the second chapter, \u201cHer.\u201d She\u2019s Lila (Jordan Baker), who declares herself to be a big fan and simply wants some DVDs autographed, including one for her son. Again, Marian reluctantly invites the stranger in, and the two engage in a lengthy discussion about Marian\u2019s film and the film business in general. It provides the opportunity for Marian to launch into a diatribe about the frustrations of working with clueless movie distributors and marketers, which, coming from LaBute, feels like the most personal and honest part of the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film drops hints about Lila\u2019s true identity, or at least Marian\u2019s perception of it, with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Onstage, these plot machinations might have worked with a live audience eager to be manipulated. But they come across as forced and artificial here, and despite the best efforts of the performers Murderous feels more like an actors\u2019 exercise than an organically plotted thriller. It never transcends its air of narrative claustrophobia and, considering its thin premise, would have benefited from a sharp cutting of its overlong 107-minute running time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best-selling novels like Jean Hanff Korelitz\u2019s The Plot and stage thrillers like Ira Levin\u2019s Deathtrap, among many other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397,280597,9168,247187],"class_list":["post-620699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-neil-labute","tag-oldenburg-international-film-festival","tag-thomas-sadoski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}