By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago
When a film is liked by studios but not yet picked up for production, it’s put on a blacklist, which serves as a curated compilation of unproduced material for consideration. 2019’s Villains, starring Bill Skarsgard, Maika Monroe, Kyra Sedgwick, and Jeffrey Donovan, found its way onto this list in 2016 and finally went into production in 2018. A ghoulishly dark comedy of errors, Villains plays out like the antics of a clumsy, drug-addicted Bonnie and Clyde with morbidly hilarious results.
Starting with a robbery gone wrong, Villains escalates into a home invasion gone wrong, then escalates again into a kidnapping gone wrong. Everything goes wrong for everybody involved, actually, but it feels so right because everybody here understood the assignment. Billed as a horror comedy, I’d argue this is more of a comedy of errors that uses horror movie logic to launch its ridiculous premise into territory so off-the-wall you almost feel guilty for laughing.
Bonnie And Clyde, If Bonnie And Clyde Were Really Dumb
The gas station robbery sets the tone immediately, going terribly wrong and only getting worse from there. Villains introduces us to Mickey and Jules, an incredibly likeable couple who definitely don’t have their impulses in check. After fleeing the scene, they run out of gas because they forgot to get gas at the gas station before robbing it. In a panic, they regroup by breaking into a nearby vacant house to figure out their next moves.
Things get complicated fast when they find a young girl chained up in the basement. Homeowners George (Jeffrey Donovan) and Gloria (Kyra Sedgwick) return home, confront Mickey and Jules, and give them two options. Leave with the car keys or stay and face the consequences. Not willing to leave a little girl locked up, Mickey and Jules choose the latter and end up captive alongside the girl, revealed to be named Sweetiepie (Blake Baumgartner).
From here, the couple plots a series of increasingly ambitious escape attempts, only to be thwarted at every turn. Despite being in a fog from drug withdrawal while navigating an absurd, life-altering situation, Mickey and Jules are surprisingly adept at improvising under pressure. They’re also clumsy and shortsighted, which doesn’t help when Gloria and George clearly know their way around keeping a hostage in the basement. Our heroes, or shall we say Villains, keep trying to break out with Sweetiepie but can’t quite outsmart their captors, who are disturbingly prepared for all of this.
Totally Bizarre, But Follows Real World Rules
The thing I appreciate most about Villains is how real it feels despite its premise. It is a dark comedy built on horror logic, yet every action and consequence is grounded in real world rules. Injuries are brutal. The resources Mickey and Jules scrape together for their escape attempts are limited but practical. Sometimes they’re downright grisly. I’d spell out how they get out of their handcuffs, but that’s something you need to witness.
Bill Skarsgard and Maika Monroe are pitch-perfect junkies here, and it becomes clear that if Mickey and Jules weren’t so lost in the sauce they could actually do well for themselves. They’re smart and resourceful when their adrenaline hits, but they’re not written as heroes and definitely not living on the straight and narrow. The genius of Villains is how quickly they become sympathetic once Gloria and George reveal themselves to be infinitely worse people. Kyra Sedgwick leans into the deranged housewife angle with a chilling secret, and Jeffrey Donovan brings a calm menace that might fool you into thinking he’s a true gentleman if not for the child chained to a bannister in his basement.
All four leads in Villains bounce off each other effortlessly. We go from a robbery to a home invasion to a hostage situation so quickly that it briefly becomes tough to know who you’re rooting for. Not to worry. Once you understand who everybody really is, Mickey and Jules earn your allegiance without question.
Sick And Hilarious
Clocking in at just 88 minutes, Villains is a tight thriller comedy that plays with horror tropes better than most films I’ve seen. Not a minute is wasted, and it keeps escalating in ways that justify every single beat. There is zero fat because we don’t have time for that. The insanity is so entertaining that you can’t help but sink your teeth into the escape plot, the violence, and the stellar performances across the board. My mileage varies on home invasion stories, but Villains is absolutely one I’d recommend to anybody who loves the subgenre and everything it brings to the table.
As of this writing, you can stream Villains on Hulu.