39: A Film by Carroll McKane

Meet Carroll McKane. A late twenties, early thirties white male who works in a camera store. He has a girlfriend who loves him despite his ambivalence about her. He’s a great lover. He has a good sense of humor. His boss thinks he is a great worker and likes him as a person. His hobby is making movies.

He’s also a serial killer.

And not just any serial killer. He’s so effective that he has gone completely undetected for the last ten years killing 36 people during that time.

Unfortunately, the power of killing, even killing with impunity, has lost its appeal to Carroll. He wants to be admired for what he has done, which unfortunately means revealing himself.

The idea of the serial killer who desires adulation by the public and thus orchestrates a rather dramatic and bizarre way of revealing himself isn’t new. John Doe in Seven turns himself in so that he can become the final victim of his demented morality play. In the Last Horror Movie, Max, a professional wedding videographer uses the rental of a cliché horror film to select his next victim after revealing to them his murderous hobby.

And Carroll McKane has decided to abduct a famous forensic psychiatrist and make him into a killer in order to reveal his greatness.

The script has some spectacularly funny moments like the scene in which Carroll mocks Ted Bundy as a pussy for claiming pornography was responsible for his acts and admonishing the psychiatrist for not calling Otis O'toole and Henry Lee Lucas what they really are “moron faggots who like eating people.”

But the greatest accomplishment of this film is that the leading actor had to manipulate 9 cameras all while staying in character. There was no camera crew except for the actor playing Carroll, Martin Cummins. During intense and chaotic torture scenes, he not only had to manipulate special effects, but also remember the detailed choreography of dealing with multiple cameras all while not breaking character.

Despite this accomplishment, there are some problems with the film. One of the biggest holes in the script is the editing issue. Carroll’s videotapes of his kills only explain why the kills were taped, but what moviegoers see is clearly edited and in such a way to highlight Carroll’s power. In the Last Horror Film, the editing problem is explained by the videotape selection process, but in this film there is no answer to who edited the film and why. There are two possible solutions to the problem.

Solution One: Simply tack on a line or two of text at the beginning of the film explaining that after the events and subsequent trial involving the murders, the films were edited in order to present to the viewing public a truly unique look into the mind of a serial killer while he is actually in the process of killing. Unfortunately, this undermines the title “a film by Carroll McKane”

Solution Two: In keeping with the premise of the film, that Carroll has made this entire film, show Carroll editing the footage at one point while he is outside of the room. There is a point where he is briefly shown in front of a camera claiming he is going to edit. But this doesn’t explain the final sequence unless what he does is edit up that point and then have the final sequence be one long uncut shot. In a sense, the last scene would be edited in camera.

One of the other problems with the film is that it goes on way too long without any killing or serious torture. After while I was bored with watching the psychiatrist get kicked in the stomach and stuffed in a closet. I didn’t sign on to watch a film about a serial killer because I wanted to see a shrink wet himself repeatedly. Although I could have handled the wait, if the actual kills depicted hadn’t been such a disappointment. They were over quickly with a little bit of gore, disappointing for such an angry killer who seems bent on driving another man to murderous rage.

And as amusing and charming as Carroll is, may I ask why it is that American serial killers are so polite? Did their abusive mommies make them read Miss Manners as punishment for bedwetting? And why is it so many cinematic serial killers are into making movies these days? Doesn’t anyone go to poetry readings anymore? Karaoke night?

Scrabble tournament maybe?

Despite its flaws, however, 39’s successes far outstrip its failures. Hopefully soon horror fans will be able to meet Carroll McKane and witness his magnum opus for themselves.