Review: ‘Random Acts of Violence’ slashes through a hellish disturbia

“Slasherman is like… my life, my religion,” a crazed, bug-eyed fan gushes, placing a dioramic recreation of various graphic novel panels onto the table. He’s reproduced gruesome imagery of decapitations and severed limbs, and seeing his vision in a more life-like form even rattles its creator. During a fan signing in Random Acts of Violence, director Jay Baruchel (script co-writer with Jesse Chabot) observes the impact such horrific depictions in popular culture have on fandoms and the minds of the mentally unbalanced.

Jesse Williams plays comic book creator Todd Walkley, known for his iconic slasher graphic novel Slasherman, greatly inspired by a series of grisly murders that took place in the late ’80s and early ’90s. He bears little weight from exploiting such real life tragedy, simply funneling the mystique around the unknown killer into his own twisted and tortured imagination. Along with his wife and aspiring writer/documentarian Kathy (Jordanna Brewster), assistant Aurora (Niamh Wilson), and comics business partner Ezra (Baruchel), Todd sets out on a road trip from Toronto to New York City’s Comic Con that also includes a mini-press tour at a radio station and a fan signing in Albany.

What should have been a fun joyride becomes a nightmarish, blood-soaked rampage, as numerous murders crop up that bare a striking resemblance to panels from Todd’s own comic. “I’ve drawn, what, a thousand kills. Once in a while, one of them might match up with something that happens in this fucking crazy country,” spouts Todd to Ezra, who’s just pointed out that a roadside slaughter of three teenagers mirrors a triptych death in the comic. That is only the beginning.

Baruchel peels back the layers like he’s scraping up roadkill. Random Acts of Violence carries a crass brutality to it, and that’s its charm. But it’s always bound in canine-sharp insight ⏤ provoking questions around horror filmmakers’ bearing any moral responsibility, media’s obsession with psychotic serial killers, and the ill-fated nature of society itself. “Real art is born of truth. Everything else is masturbation,” reads the last line of an unfinished comic manuscript. Todd seeks to end his Slasherman comic once and for all, but he can’t quite nail down the proper ending. Perhaps he’ll find it winding through mutilated bodies of strangers and friends ⏤ or maybe his fascination with the macabre hints at trauma so deep he’s repressed it completely.

Random Acts of Violence pays homage to the slasher genre with buckets of blood, guts, and gore ⏤ oh my! But it’s messaging rings loud and clear, particularly in today’s toxic and dangerous social media environment that feels like its consuming itself from the inside-out. Even if its thesis (which often reads a bit too hammy and on-the-nose) doesn’t quite interest you, Baruchel’s latest film delivers a meaty and delightful bloodbath to satiate your darkest desires.

Random Acts of Violence hits Shudder this Thursday (August 20).

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