More “Killer Inside” Controversy

A couple of days ago I posted about the  controversy that director Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s classic novel The Killer Inside Me received at the Sundance Film Festival. Several people walked out of the screening due to the amount and depiction of violence, especially against women.

The film starring, Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Simon Baker and Bill Pulman is set to be shown at the Berlin Film Festival.  Of course questions about the controversy at Sundance and the level of violence came up.  I like Winterbottom’s response:

“A lot of noir books and films show violence as something which is entertaining… What I liked about Jim Thompson’s books is that… he doesn’t use the violence as entertainment — there is something shocking about the violence… For me that was the point of the violence in the film in a way — it is something very repulsive. In terms of how we depicted it, we were just trying to make it as close to the book as possible. The book is very shocking.”

Although I like Winterbottom’s response, I wonder how I’ll enjoy his movie.  There are ways to depict violence that is shocking without dwelling on it or being overly graphic.   Some times, many times in fact, the more left to the imagination, the more shocking the result.  It’ll be interesting to see the response The Killer Inside Me gets in Berlin.