Obviously, ‘violence’ is in the title of Random Acts of Violence, and there’s plenty of it in this one. This one is an in-your-face gorefest and brutal as hell. And it was hard for me imagine that the mind behind Random Acts of Violence was Jay Baruchel. His normal groove is non-horror comedy and voices Hiccup from How to Train a Dragon.
Yeah…the kid’s movies.
Turns out that Jay Baruchel has horror-driven creativity inside him.
Random Acts of Violence, is a film adaptation from the 2010 comic booked, which was titled the same, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.
A comic book about comic books!
More, it’s about Todd Walker, creator of the graphic novel “Splatterman”. “Splatterman” is a story based off a real-life killer who brutally claimed many lives on a specific stretch of highway within a few years in the 80’s/90’s. The graphic novels Todd creates lean toward glorifying the murderer, somewhat creating a hero out the killer. However, Todd has hit a writer’s block. In trying to figure out the ending to his comic book, Todd goes on a road trip to create some writing inspiration for the grand finale of his ode to the murderer. Along with him travel his girlfriend, his publisher, and his assistant.
Subsequently, Todd’s road trip becomes known to the real-life killer, which inspires him to pick up his old nasty hobby of murder. The style by which the murderer performs his killings is mirrored from specific murder scenes in Todd’s comic books. It is an attempt to get Todd’s attention as the killer believes he is being honored and revered by the graphic novels.
Random Acts of Violence the movie follows this storyline exactly. Jesse Williams (The Cabin in the Woods) takes the lead in the movie as Todd, the comic book writer/creator. Jay Baruchel takes his first crack at Directing, Writing, and acting as he has a role in the movie as Todd’s Publisher. And Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious movies) plays Todd’s girlfriend. So, the movie was cast well and had potential from that aspect.
In an interview from “Forbes”, Jay Baruchel explains that it’s been his life-long dream to work in cinema, not necessarily act, but to produce, write, and create movies. And specifically, in the horror or action genres. This is his first crack at it.
I think he did….okay.
Up front, the message that the story tries to convey is that violence in art and entertainment may trigger real-life horrific events, using the “art” as influence and inspiration. And that, entertainment pushes violence out to the public in droves, with potential dire consequences. On the flip side, it also portrays how real-life events can spark creativity for entertainment, regardless of the content. Though the movie doesn’t necessarily follow through with the first message all the way to the end of the movie, it definitely provides a high level of gore and bloodshed. And blood and plenty of guts. And more guts. Lots of guts. The level of graphic violence is an odd offset to the message that the movie portrays with violence in entertainment. However, Random definitely shows how disturbing and disgusting violence and murder can be.
The characters were a bit shallow, which took away from the overall experience with the movie. If Random had a little additional time they could’ve addressed this with more character development. There is a little back story thrown in for Todd near the end of the movie, but it muddied the water more than supported the story. There was one part in the movie, after a particular death, where I thought the characters would’ve been losing their minds about what was happening. But, they just went on about their road trip continuing their business. Which seemed uncharacteristic of what people would do in the situation. And the police involved in this movie were unrealistic…but I guess more like a comic book may portray them in a story like this? I dunno, it was one of the downsides to the movie.
I did like the cast even though the characters needed some work. And, I really like how they incorporated comic book drawings and flip-grids to tell parts of the story from Todd's writing. This added a nice bonus to the filming style. Being that the movie was an adaptation from a graphic novel, I could see that come through in the filming and some of the flow. I thought it was a great nod to the writers of the original story.
As I said, Random Act of Violence was a gorefest and probably wouldn’t sit well with everyone, even within the Horror community. Some will take delight in the style and approach in which the death scenes or violence was given to the viewers. Some may just be disgusted by the sheer unkindliness of the movie as a whole.
I think Jay Baruchel can improve on this one and continue within the genre with confidence. There were aspects of the movie that could land well if extended into his next attempt. Visual style, realistic and believable violent settings, etc. I’m looking forward to see what he comes up with next.
So, watch if you like gore!
Random Act of Violence
Released: 2019
Rating: NR
Director: Jay Baruchel
Writer: Jay Baruchel & Jesse Chabot (screenplay), Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (Comic Book)
Stars: Jesse Williams (Cabin in the Woods), Jay Baruchel (This is the End, How to Train a Dragon), Jordana Brewster (Texas Chainsaw: The Beginning, Fast & Furious)
IMDB Rating: 5.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: 58%
Metascore: 39 out of 100
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