THE KILLER (2023): FILM REVIEW

The Killer (MA15+)
Directed by David Fincher
Written by Alexis Nolent, Luc Jacamon and Andrew Kevin Walker
Starring Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton and Charles Parnell
Duration: 118 minutes

I’m of an age and certain demographic that any time a new film from David Fincher comes out I am buying a ticket for opening night. Fincher’s aesthetic and technique has been formative for me growing up as a film fan, from discovering his work as a 15-year-old with Fight Club and Se7en, all the way through to seeing Mank on the big screen in 2020. I even have more authority than most to be able to say that Gone Girl makes for a fantastic date movie. Trust me, you’ll immediately be able to tell whether or not it is worth continuing to see the person you bring with you based purely on the conversation you have afterwards. 

She wasn’t. 

All that is to say, though, that a new film from Fincher is an event for me, and so I made certain to catch his new film, The Killer, on the big screen before it made its way to Netflix. 

Michael Fassbender is the titular killer, and he takes the audience through his process in meticulous detail, leaving no stone unturned in his pursuit of the perfect job. The perfect process. 

The perfect kill.

Unsurprisingly, it goes wrong, and despite the fact that he constantly insists that the reason he excels at his job is because it is never personal, it immediately becomes personal. We follow the killer on his globe-trotting, outfit-wearing, alias-heavy journey for revenge. 

At first glance, The Killer is a quintessential Fincher project - returning to the subject matter of serial killers, reengaging with the thriller genre, slick and cool cinematography, a darkly humorous and cynical edge; all of the trademarks we have come to associate with Fincher (many of which were noticeably absent from his previous work, Mank). 

But within about ten minutes of the film starting, I began to realise that this is something new for Fincher in many ways. 

In contrast to the tightly wound narratives of previous thrillers like Se7en, Gone Girl, Zodiac and The Game, The Killer meanders in a way that seems to be intentionally at odds with his previously unstoppable narrative momentum. That’s not to say that there isn’t any narrative momentum to be found - whether or not we are privy to the details of his plan, we know that we are on a one-way path to revenge. But the mechanics and detail-oriented writing that usually accompany these sorts of stories as told by Fincher largely absent in a way that almost feels confrontational. 

Instead we are asked to spend the large majority of the film in the killer’s head, listening to his interior monologue about process, patience and detail. It’s almost like we are listening to him as he tries to convince himself that he is still in control, despite everything descending into chaos around him. It’s a choice that marks The Killer as noticeably different to the rest of Fincher’s body of work, and a film that tries new things in a genre that Fincher (and his audience) are so very familiar with. 

It’s also a film that relishes the sort of B-movie schlock that Fincher’s films have often been flirting with. Whether it’s the absurdity of Gone Girl or The Game, the extreme violence of Fight Club or the pulpiness of his Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake, there have always been elements of his films that exist on the fringes of what some would label as “low-brow” or even exploitation filmmaking. 

In this film any pretense seems to have been totally abandoned, leaving room for Fincher and co. to fully embrace the type of film that The Killer wants to be. Not only is it gleefully hilarious at times, but it’s also giddily violent in ways that seem to actively affront the viewer to get a reaction. While some would label this as lazy or less-important filmmaking designed to shock or excite, I would simply label it as a filmmaker boldly stepping into a genre that has been so beloved for so long without any apologies or attempts to water those genre elements down. 

With The Killer I really do get the sense that Fincher, just as Michael Fassbender so memorably says in his opening monologue, simply doesn’t give a fuck. And I don’t mean that in a reductive way, I truly do mean it in the sense that The Killer feels like a film that truly does not care what you think about it - it simply is what it is, and it will not apologise. 

I do think that all of this culminates in a film that will perhaps feel less memorable that some of Fincher’s iconic work, and perhaps over time The Killer will fade into the echelons of Fincher’s lesser works. But to be honest, it feels refreshing to see a film from a director with such a huge profile and pedigree simply make a short, simple, violent, cynical, hilarious and confrontational serial killer thriller. 

The Killer is now streaming on Netflix.