I Hate You (2004) (V)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Nick Oddo

Writers:

Nick Oddo (writer)
Marvin W. Schwartz (writer)

Release Date:

13 November 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Whoever kills the most wins.

Plot:

I Hate You is an off the wall Black Comedy about a comic who moonlights as a serial killer, spinning a provocative message about the reality of violence.

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer

Cast

Marvin W. Schwartz	...	Norman
Bill Santiago	...	Comic
Chuck Corbett	...	Friend on Sofa
Paul Rusanowsky	...	Paul
Charlie Bodt	...	Bartender
Kal Wagenheim	...	Teacher
Rosie Sharp	...	Stand-up Comic
David Wagenheim	...	Man at Door
Vinnie Stigma	...	Tattoo Shop Owner
Brooks Hornsby	...	Victim in Tattoo Shop
Ray Lamb	...	Friend
Loraine Blasor	...	Home Health Aide
Jessica Mutter	...	Dorm Victim
Marie Trusits	...	Student
Jacob Lillywhite	...	Writing Class Student

Runtime:

75 min | USA:77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Nick Oddo's mad psycho killer ride

Most horror filmmakers don't have major aspirations of challenging their audiences to think outside of who's the killer, which teens next for the chopping block, or how will the monster live on for the eventual sequel. I have to admit it was with this mindset that I began watching director Nick Oddo's first feature length film I Hate You. After about 10 minutes, my notebook tossed aside, I let myself get lured into this film, realizing it could take many viewings to begin to pull out the intricacies of Oddo's mad psycho killer ride.

It's not a high rattling thrill ride; it's a slow car thumping you through the stuffy horror house. It's not the bumper cars; it's the house of mirrors you inevitably get lost within. It doesn't drive you by the accident; it plucks you from the car and forces you to help clean up the gore.

From the very first, we know Norman (Marvin W. Schwartz) is a true New Yorker. With the look a cross between a frenzied Albert Einstein and the cemetery ghoul from Night of the Living Dead, Norman bursts on screen with a humble vitality, hopping in and out of old tires and skipping rocks into the river across shore from the NYC landscape. Director Oddo keeps us within the untouristed sections of New York, capturing the pre-Guiliani clean up Times Square campaign that his 12-minute short film Times Square "change" deals with. (This award-winning short is included among the DVD extras)

With Oddo's choice of black and white, he keeps you off kilter, bluntly establishing the grind of back alleys and drabness of the buildings. Bring on Norman's first stand-up routine, one of many suffering chats he devotes to Jack the ripper, immortality and serial killers, the only subjects he discusses in the entire film.

A quick switch has Norman delivering his innate charm to get invited into others' homes. With his walking cane and Casablanca hat, he's swiftly inside and bludgeoning a man into submission until he can produce a long dagger from within the cane. Concluding his death dance, he offers a flourishing stage bow to imaginary applause. This routine is repeated, the only change being the choice of a mop handle as his death bludgeon.

Director Oddo cements the viewer's confusion over Norman's act by having young comic Bill (a very funny Bill Santiago) performing funny material to real applause before Normans set, to which he talks on the gory effectiveness of different execution styles and his idea to start a death channel, where you can relax at home after a long day at work by watching someone get run over by a car. Dead silence.

Norman keeps killing, switching out methods and weapons, and keeps on rambling. The subtlety comes with Norman's growing disturbance over the lack of news coverage, his inability to understand why his crimes can be swallowed up in the city's underbelly. The story moves in shades of gray, as his ramblings to club patrons and individual friends distort with his despair. Events finally plummet in ways that you both expect and somehow regret.

Norman's undeniably different from the benchmark serial killer profile law enforcement works from. This makes the story seem unbelievable at the onset, but by its end you both understand and believe that he indeed has the killer within him.

At 77 minutes it's short, but with 11 murders it's like a turbulent jaunt over Lake Michigan in a twin prop puddle jumper, abrupt yet lingering, careful yet threatening. Ray Lambs poem, which Norman begs from him to use, seems to say it all.

I hate your guts, I'll crush your nuts, while pain's dotting your eyes I'll smash your head until you're dead, and your bodies covered with flies I hate you with the darkest passion man has ever been able to fashion

Your putrid body was meant for smashing,

But I think you have beautiful eyes.