When Vann Siegert arrives in a sleepy suburban town, he seems nothing but normal--even understated and polite. However, a string of poison murders that followed his path speak otherwise.
Subgenres: psychological, murder
Director: Hampton Fancher
Starring: Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo
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There is an entire subgrenre of horror films that deal with the conscienceless killer. The argument about such films is either that the killers in them aren't evil--how can they be, if they have no conscience or emotion--or that it is the very lack of conscience that is the evil itself. The problem with the vast majority of those films is that the conscienceless killers always do come off as being evil. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was a very good film, but I disliked Henry intensely. I wanted to trottle Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed, and the same goes for Macauley Kulkin's character in The Good Son. Despite their consciencelessness, these characters were evil. Which all goes to say why The Minus Man is unique and terrifying, in an intellectual way. The killing acts in other films of this subgenre are either crimes of passion, desire, or greed (as in films as varied as Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, which The Minus Man resembles in some ways, and A Clockwork Orange) or quasi-scientific curiosity (Spoorloos and its offspring The Vanishing). The Minus Man is neither. The killer in this film is not passionate about his work, nor does he do it to satiate any kind of curiosity, nor as a means to an end. He just does it. And since we perceive events from his point of view (thanks largely to Owen Wilson's effective voiceover), we understand that Vann is perfectly normal--except for that one little part of his personality that makes him poison people. There are hints, here and there, of where Vann's dispassionate killing urge may come from. It's visible even in the almost imperceptible distance he keeps between him and those around him. But the whys and wherefores are not important; I have a feeling that line of reasoning finishes in a dead-end anyway. What does matter is this: everyone involved in The Minus Man--from director Hampton Fancher and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski to Owen Wilson, who completely redefined my opinion of his acting ability--succeeds in creating a unique, intelligent, and rewarding work. (Apr 3, 2000) | ||||||
Based on the book of the same name by Lew McCreary.
