The Killer Inside Me

The Killer Inside Me is a 2010 American crime drama and an adaptation of the 1952 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson. The film is directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Kate Hudson. It is the second film adaptation of Thompson's novel, the first being 1976's The Killer Inside Me, directed by Burt Kennedy. At its release, the film was criticised for its graphic depiction of violence directed toward women. The film also received a day-and-date theatrical and VOD release in the United States on June 18, 2010; the film went on earning $217,277 at box office and $4 million on VOD. Plot In 1952, Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is a pillar of his small west Texas community; secretly, he is a sociopath with violent sexual tastes. Years before, Lou was caught raping a little girl by his adopted brother Mike, who pleaded guilty to the crime to protect Lou. Released from prison, Mike was hired by Chester Conway, and died in a construction “accident” Lou believes was staged by Conway. At the request of Sheriff Bob Maples, Lou visits Joyce Lakeland, a prostitute who is having an affair with Conway's son, Elmer. When she continuously provokes him with slaps, Lou violently beats Joyce, who enjoys pain, and they begin their own affair. They devise a plot to extort $10,000 from Conway. Maples and Conway ask Lou to oversee the payoff, but Lou enacts his own plan: he brutally beats Joyce and, believing her dead, shoots and kills Elmer, planting the gun on Joyce. However, Joyce survives, and Conway intends to see her executed for Elmer's murder.