When Constant Consumer Magazine decided to make staff cuts, Dorine Douglas decided to make a few of her own…
Office Killer is a 1997 Black Comedy horror film starring Carol Kane, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Molly Ringwald, and Michael Imperioli. It is the sole feature film directed by photographer Cindy Sherman.Dorine Douglas is an introverted, mousy, put-upon copy editor at Constant Consumer magazine. When the magazine is forced to downsize, she finds herself stuck at home with a laptop on top of her ailing, domineering mother. That changes when she’s called in to help fix the computer of a co-worker and accidentally electrocutes him. She takes his corpse home and places him in the basement… and soon, more employees start to disappear…
The only film directed by Cindy Sherman, who achieved fame as a photographer.
This film contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Dorine accidentally backs into the electrical box while Gary’s fiddling with the wires on his computer, triggering a power surge that fries him.
- Asthma Peril: Enforced and exploited. Dorine kills Virginia by replacing her asthma medication with butane and placing her in a stressful situation.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Dorine sets fire to her basement, fakes her death, and escapes. She’s last seen circling an ad in the paper for an office job.
- Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: Dorine is in the bathroom when Kim, who comes barreling into the bathroom after she's fired, screams that Dorine is a "backstabbing dyke." This gets Kim put on the murder list.
- The Cameo: Eric Bogosian appears in two brief flashbacks as Dorine's father.
- Dramatic Thunder: A conveniently timed violent thunderstorm sets the mood for Dorine's murder of Virginia on a late night at the office.
- Dramatic Irony: One of the two coroner's office people carrying Dorine's mom away says "She's weird! Probably got another one in the basement. Man, the whole place reeked of death!" Dorine as it happens has five more in the basement.
- Flashback: A flashback indicates that when she was a girl Dorine was in a car accident, which got her a minor scratch but killed her father. A second flashback of that same accident shows that her father sexually abused her, and that Dorine caused the car accident that killed him (and crippled her mom) when she grabbed his hand as he was caressing her leg.
- Foreshadowing: Gary mentions for no particular reason that Virginia is asthmatic, and Virginia is later seen sucking on an inhaler. This sets up Virginia's murder later in the movie.
- Grammar Nazi: Basically Dorine's job at the magazine—copy editor—but she's a classic grammar Nazi about it, correcting a split infinitive in her first scene.
- Hates Being Touched: Dorine, who understandably reacts very badly when creepy Gary tries to give her an unwanted neck massage, but also reacts badly when much nicer Daniel takes her hand because he's trying to show her how to work the computer.
- Inhuman Resources: Norah is acutely aware of how nobody likes HR, after Virginia forces her to be the hatchet woman and pass out the layoff notices. Kim reminds Norah that it's the price of her promotion.
- Kubrick Stare: Dorine gives one of these, from her desk, as she overhears an enraged Kim insulting her in front of their bosses.
- Medication Tampering: Dorine kills Virginia by swapping out her asthma medication with butane.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: Dorine takes the corpses of her victims to her basement and puts them on the couch. She carries on one-sided conversations and they all watch TV together.
- My Beloved Smother: One of the stressors in Dorine's highly stressed life is her domineering mother Carlotta. Carlotta is disabled and expects Dorine to wait on her hand and foot, punching a buzzer to summon Dorine as one would summon a maid. In one scene, Carlotta uses the toilet, but Dorine has to flush it for her.
- Parental Abuse: The second flashback reveals that 1) Dorine's father sexually abused her, and 2) Dorine's mother didn't believe her and didn't really care anyway.
- Stealing from the Till: It turns out that Norah is embezzling from the magazine, something that Dorine finds out when she helps Norah with a buggy computer, and sees a spreadsheet that Norah carelessly left up.
- Voiceover Letter: The film opens with a letter read in Dorine's voiceover, from the HR department at the magazine, threatening mass layoffs.
- Would Hurt a Child: Dorine kills two Girl Scouts offscreen, after she invites them in to buy cookies.
