Line #17 Film/TheKillerInsideMe


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_killer_inside_me_poster_1595.jpg]]
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3	->'''Sheriff Bob Maples:''' Name of Joyce Lakeland. Lives about four or five miles out on Derrick Road past the old Branch place.\
4	'''Lou Ford:''' Oh, I know the old Branch place. She a hustling lady, Bob?\
5	'''Sheriff Bob Maples:''' Well, I guess so, but she's - she's been pretty decent about it.
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7	''The Killer Inside Me'' is a 2010 psychological horror film by Creator/MichaelWinterbottom based on the novel by Creator/JimThompson. It stars Creator/CaseyAffleck (Lou), Creator/JessicaAlba (Joyce) and Creator/KateHudson (Amy). It is the second film adaptation of Thompson's novel, the first being released in 1976 and starring Creator/StacyKeach, Susan Tyrrell, and Creator/KeenanWynn.
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9	This film is unflinchingly violent and deliberately disturbing. It begins when the polite, seemingly normal Lou Ford is sent to encourage local prostitute Joyce Lakeland to leave town. The confrontation leads to him beating her with a belt, and their romance begins. Together they concoct a plan to scam money from the wealthy Chester Conway. But Lou secretly had an even darker plan for Joyce. He beats Joyce unconscious and shoots Chester's son, making it appear as if the two of them got into a fight. From there he must keep commiting more murders to cover up his crimes, and also, because he enjoys it.
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11	Not to be confused with TheKillerInMe.
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13	----
14	!! This film provides examples of:
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16	* AssholeVictim: Chester Conway is an overbearing jerk and his son is wildly irresponsible but damn, they did not deserve what happened.
17	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: {{Averted}}. Joyce's beauty is mostly destroyed after Lou is done with her. [[spoiler:When she reappears at the end of the film, her entire face is covered in scars.]]
18	* BondageIsBad: Subverted, despite Lou being a sociopathic and sadistic killer, having sadomasochistic fantasies is in no way described as wrong. The only times it is is when Lou spanks Joyce without her consent and [[spoiler:during a sequence showing Lou as an underage kid beating his babysitter]]. Otherwise, Lou's BDSM relationships with Joyce and Amy are shown as loving and perfectly sane.
19	* DomesticAbuse: Lou has to be one of the worst in cinema history.
20	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Lou is shown as having genuine affection for Joyce (although it doesn't stop him from beating her to a bloody pulp and using her for his revenge plan) and is show as partly regretting his action multiple times in the film. Later when [[spoiler:he has been arrested and sent to a mental institution, he hallucinates films being shown in his cell, showing a smiling Joyce]].
21	* EvilIsPetty: Lou sets up Elmer and hopes that Chester will live a long life of shame about what happened.
22	* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Lou is boyishly handsome with a sweet demeanor, and is a sadistic, psychopathic serial killer.
23	* FakePregnancy: Amy attempts this in an effort to get Lou to hurry up and marry her already, only for him to drily inform her that he's infertile.
24	* FauxAffablyEvil: Lou Ford never loses his puppy dog eyes, southern drawl and [[SouthernGentleman gentlemanly ways]], even when he's beating someone to death.
25	* ForTheEvulz: Why Lou does most of what he does.
26	* FreudianExcuse: The camera pans over the main character's bookshelf, lingering prominently on a volume of Freud. He immediately takes a Bible off the same shelf, opens it, [[spoiler:and finds forgotten photographs of his father's sadomasochistic relationship with the housekeeper, Helene. She sexually abused Lou when he was young as well, instructing him to hit and spank her, telling him that she "likes it when [he] hurts [her]", likely planting the seeds of his sociopathy in him]]. He also mentions later that his mother died when he was young.
27	* TheKillerInMe: Interestingly, averted. Despite the name, it isn't an example of this trope, as it's told from the first-person perspective of a character who knowingly and admittedly is committing the murders in the story, and isn't hallucinating or hiding anything from the viewer. [[spoiler: Or is he?]]
28	* KinkySpanking: This is a sexual fetish for Lou and he engages in spanking with a local prostitute as well as his fiancé. It becomes a lot darker when it turns out Lou's obsession is the result of childhood sexual abuse.
29	* ManipulativeBastard: Lou, given his reputation as a perfect SouthernGentleman in the town, gets people to have total faith in him and so they naturally tend to confide to him. He manages to pull off a scheme that got everyone right where he wanted them to be: Elmer plans to run off with Joyce, using the money his father gave him, Chester wants Joyce to get out of town to leave Elmer alone and ask Lou to help him with it; Joyce for her part believes that Lou is going to join her after she leaves Elmer in the lurch, when Lou really convinced ''him'' that he would help them get away quietly. In the end, he has killed [[spoiler:Joyce and Elmer]] has everyone believing that [[spoiler:the two killed each other]] without anyone suspecting him as no one involved believed he had contact with the others. So he made everyone believe he was working for them without ''any'' of them knowing he was using ''all'' of them.
30	* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted. If you kill someone, and they needed to go to the bathroom at the time you brutally beat them to death, guess what happens?
31	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Lou gives one of these to both Joyce and Amy in graphic, prolonged, horrific scenes. And they both die. [[spoiler:Except not really, because Joyce is revealed to be [[FakingTheDead alive at the end]], although disfigured--and then he [[KilledOffForReal immediately kills her for real.]]]]
32	* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: Joyce starts hitting Lou, Lou hits her back, and then shoves her down on the bed and starts beating her with his belt, which she shows signs of beginning to enjoy mid-way through. He apologizes, looking shocked at himself, and she tells him it's okay and kisses him before they have consensual sex. They then begin an S&M relationship.
33	* RapeAsBackstory: Lou's backstory is that he [[spoiler:was the victim of sexual abuse]] and a sexual abuser.
34	* {{Sadist}}: Lou, all the way.
35	* SerialKiller: Lou qualified as over the course of the film he kills [[spoiler:Joyce, Elmer, Johnnie, Amy and even several police officers when he blows up his house with him in it]].
36	* TheSociopath: Lou, all the way.
37	* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Implied by this quote (although it sounds more like a crappy justification that Lou is trying to come up with):
38	--> '''Lou''': It was almost like there was a plot against me. I've done something wrong when I was a kid, and I had my nose rubbed in it day after day.
39	* VillainProtagonist: Lou Ford is an accomplished serial killer and domestic abuser masquerading as an honest cop, and genuinely enjoys all the murders he commits.
40	* ViolenceIsDisturbing: There's a notorious scene where the VillainProtagonist graphically beats a woman to death for five whole minutes. Her face is mangled beyond belief when he's done.

Context Film / TheKillerInsideMe