Amateur Porn Star Killer (2006)

Director:

Shane Ryan

Writers:

Michiko Jimenez (writer)
Shane Ryan (writer)

Genre:

Crime | Horror

Tagline:

But he looked like a really nice guy.

Plot:

The unofficial story of a killer who kidnaps and kills three girls is told through the tale of his last victim...

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Erection | Female Nudity | Killing | Sex

Cast

Jan Gould	...	Loren
Michiko Jimenez	...	Stacy "The Victim"
Shane Ryan	...	Brandon

Directed by
Shane Ryan

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Michiko Jimenez		writer
Shane Ryan		writer

Produced by
Nikki Nishimoto	....	producer
Shane Ryan	....	producer
Jeremy Williams	....	producer

Original Music by
Boneshin

Cinematography by
Shane Ryan

Film Editing by
Shane Ryan

Thanks
Carl Franklin	....	grateful acknowledgment
Chad Meisenheimer	....	special thanks
Kristen Stewart	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Alter Ego Cinema

Distributors

• Cinema Epoch (2007) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

USA:71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Certification:

USA:X

Filming Locations:

Lompoc, California, USA

Company:

Alter Ego Cinema

Movie Connections:

Followed by Amateur Porn Star Killer 3D: Inside the Head (2009)

Worth Seeking Out

Amateur Porn Star Killer (2007)

*** (out of 4)

Each and every year horror fans start hyping up a film saying it's one of the best of the genre and so on. The skies usually falls down as these hyped movies turn out to be bad but that's not the case here. I had never even heard of this movie until I got bored and kept walking around the video store and noticed the naked woman on the DVD cover. I read the mini-reviews scattered across the front and back cover so I decided to give the film a shot and it was certainly worth it. The film is more psychological drama than horror but no matter which genre the film works.

A man (Shane Ryan) lures a 13-year-old girl (Michiko Jimenez) to a hotel room for what she thinks is to make an amateur porn movie but soon, as she begins to feel uncomfortable, she knows something else is going on. The set up is simple but the style is what really pushes this film over the edge. This is another film that tries to be a snuff movie and it actually works here but I'm sure a lot will blow their brains out. The whole style of the film is that the movie looks like a real, low budget movie with splices on the print, the darkness goes up and down, tape rolls and other things. This will annoy most but it does work in making the film look and feel like a real snuff movie. It's ugly to look at and sometimes the audio is hard to hear but this just captures what a real snuff film would probably look like. The film is meant to be a warning to women about going places with men that they don't know and this simple idea works very well. The film runs 71-minutes and 68-minutes of that time is shot in "real time" as we see the two enter the room, start talking, slowly taking their clothes off and so on. There's a real oral sex scene and the film isn't shy about the nudity but all of it is done in a grungy way, just like what we'd expect the snuff film to be.

The film runs very short but with the lack of any real editing it just adds to the movie. Apparently this was shot in a couple hours for $45 and it looks it. That's not a bad thing either. The film opens with a small scene in the car and then we hit the hotel room where we get a forty-minute scene done without any edits and then another thirty-minute scene without edits. The film plays very smoothly and you really get the feeling that you're watching a real video that's uncut. Star and director Ryan does a very good job in both departments and his acting was pretty damn good. He does a great job at playing this creep who starts off like a girl's dream but slowly turns to the psychopath that he is. Jimenez gives a terrific performance as the young virgin who gets in over her head. I was rather shocked at how great she was and considering there aren't any edits or double takes, the fact that she was able to stay in character and go with the story ranks this performance as one of the best I've seen in 2007. Shane, the director, does a terrific job with the visual style, although again, the bad quality will probably bug some. If we're going to call this a horror movie then it's one of the best I've seen in a very long time and like the films of the 70s, its point is to shock you and that it does very well.