slayrrr666 "Office Killer" is a disappointing and not very worthwhile slasher.**SPOILERS**As the company begins downsizing, Dorine Douglas, (Carol Kane) is sent off to work at home, while Norah Reed, (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and her friend Kim Poole, (Molly Ringwald) are concerned over what the move will do for the morale of everyone else in the company. As a hectic new workload starts up and everyone suddenly starts to begin disappearing, she seems to think that someone is on the inside causing all of it, only for everything to still turn out fine when required. When she tries to get rid of her, she ends up losing her job instead, and when that leads to more people on the staff going missing, they finally figure out that she's a killer and race to stop her before it's too late.The Good News: There wasn't much to this one. Really, the only thing about this one is the slashing and it's kills. Despite their not being a whole lot of kills , the few in here are pretty graphic, with their being a neck sliced open with a metallic food processor, an impaling with a knife in the stomach, a really severe electrocution that burns major parts of the body and a great burning alive when set on fire. These are pretty much all the kills anyway, and they're the bloodiest and most brutal ones. The only other part to this is a few mildly interesting stalking scenes. The confrontation in the hallway, with the choking and being unable to see the stalker makes it come off nicely, and the finale in the basement is fine, gets a little better when the lights go out and overall is pretty tense and bloody. These few moments give the film it's only good points.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot wrong with this one, since there wasn't much to it. The mere fact that, outside of the gore and the aforementioned stalking scenes, at all really happens. This one here is pretty dull and boring, as most of the time is spent on running the magazine and everyone reacting to the ranting and raving of the boss, which is not all that interesting or leads to anything which produces any excitement. This mostly comes because this one doesn't really seem all sure whether or not as a comedy, which several scenes tend to throw out, such as the gathering of corpses in the basement or the treatment at the office missing only a laugh-track to signal the humor. The black humor in here hardly gives us any big laughs. There are a couple of scenes which are mildly amusing but nothing in here manages to really evoke the laughs it was going for and it utterly fails as a comedy. These failed attempts at humor only succeed in making this one even more dull and boring than it already is.The Final Verdict: Without much about it that really stands out for this one and a couple flaws, there's not a whole lot to this one worth mentioning. This should really only be for those who understand or enjoy these kinds of slashers, while those who prefer other types of slasher should heed caution.Rated R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence

Formdis The first question that would come to mind would be whether Carol Kane could play a psycho successfully. And after seeing this film, I would have to say I still don't know because the very tame screenplay didn't allow her to be a well developed psychotic, nor did it allow any other sort of development for any other aspect of this film.The storyline here is very typical. It involves Carol Kane (with very odd penciled in eyebrows) as an awkwardly mousy, hardworking magazine editor in a drab and depressing looking office building where she gets picked on daily. Then, without any time wasted, the inevitable psycho switch gets flipped and she starts killing off her coworkers.I know that may sound to most like your typical fun slasher, but in fact, it can't even be considered a slasher. Actually, I really don't know what genre to categorize this film in because it dips it's toes in a couple different sub-genres without ever fully concentrating on any one area, therein lying the problem. The resulting film just doesn't quite work. At the start, it seemed to be heading into satire territory with office politics and such, but quickly falls flat because of a major lack of humor. As it went on, it then seemed I was in for a slasher, but all of the murders take place off screen, giving us no chase sequences, creative deaths or gore. Then I expected it to take a turn into suspense, but was left with no tension or any sort of character development whatsoever, so I never cared for anyone or anything enough to ever get involved in the storyline. The writers just didn't seem to know what they really wanted, which kind of left the final product in limbo. And it's pretty disappointing because the photographer turned director, Cindy Sherman, seemed to have talent and would have benefited greatly if it were a straight up thriller.So what were we meant to feel during this film? It wasn't smart, funny, thrilling or even bloody. Were we supposed to hate and fear Kane? Or were we supposed to root for her? The whole film felt just as awkward as she looked and felt just as drab and boring as the office building looked, which leaves us with no reason to ever want to visit. I would compare this to later films, such as Love Object and the Willard remake, both of which used the same plot techniques, yet executed them in a much more entertaining fashion. Office Killer isn't a terrible film. I give the director and cast credit for trying. But it's just so lifeless that I can't recommend you wasting your time with it.

mark-506 In the mid-90's, there was this weird trend where 80's New York art stars were all given the chance to direct feature films. The less-than-impressive results: Robert Longo's "Johnny Mnemonic," David Salle's "Search and Destroy," Julian Schnabel's "Basquiat" and finally Cindy Sherman's "Office Killer." That only Schnabel moved on to direct a second feature says a lot about these poor directorial choices. Surprise - just because you can paint a picture or take a photograph doesn't mean you know how to make a movie.That said, "Office Killer" has a unique look to it: Sherman's photographic eye makes for some nice creepy compositions, even if her philosophy about using a camera cinematically is of the bolt-it-to-the-ground-and-maybe-pan-a-little school. And she works well with cinematographer Russell Fine, though the whole film is shot through a murky lens that had this viewer crying out for the occasional bright exterior just to add a little contrast.So what went wrong with "Office Killer"? Well, pretty much what you'd predict would go wrong with a photographer director who had never made a film before: uneven pacing; more attention paid to the setup of a shot than to what's going on in it; a lack of tension; and a cast who, with the exception of the ever-willing Carol Kane, don't seem to know what to do. Aware that they're working for a famous photographer, they quietly obey, even while Sherman clearly has little experience in working with actors. Michael Imperioli and Jeanne Tripplehorn have been far better elsewhere, Barbara Sukowa is flat-out bad, and Molly Ringwald is her usual depthless self. The script is also somewhat leaden, given its dark comic potential."Office Killer" is still a curiosity, interesting mainly for aficionados of Cindy Sherman's work (and you've got to admire those cool opening credits), though horror fans who enjoyed the better-received "May" (which I personally didn't care for) might like this movie's look and mood. As for me, I couldn't shake off the feeling that this is the product of a bunch of chuckling New York hipsters who thought they were doing something "postmodern" and "ironic" but only churned out something uninspired and limp... albeit artsy.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Hard to take black-comedy that grosses itself out long before the ending credits. Mousey and introverted magazine proofreader Dorine Douglas,Carol Kane,is the most effective worker at the office. When it comes down the grapevine that there's going to be a major change-over at the magazine Dorine as well as most of the staff are sent home to do the work and e-mail it in via a new computer system that being installed. Dorine looking harmless and nerdy has a deep seeded and unstable violent streak in her and it's this event that eventually bring it out to the surface with murderous results. Not wanting to be at home with her infirmed mother Chalotta, Alice Drummond,and away from her job and fellow workers at the office slowly turns Dorine's sick thoughts into violent actions and it's a quirk of fate that sets it all into motion.Quietly and secretly killing off her fellow workers at the magazine Dorine hides their bodies in her basement to keep her company. While all this was going on Kim, Molly Ringwald,a writer at the magazine becomes suspicious of Dorine not really knowing whats she doing but that she's somehow trying to get her fired from the job. Dorine besides murdering her fellow workers is greatly disturbed with Kim who, besides being more popular, seems to be on to her and about to uncover what Dorine's really up to. There's also office manager Norah Reed, Jeanne Tripplehorn who Dorine feels has been embezzling the magazine coffers and is responsible for what's been happening there. Trying to murder Kim in a dark and empty stairway Kim gets away but is later fired for accusing "sweet and innocent" Dorine of trying to kill her. Norah who befriends Dorine, because her timely article saved the magazine from folding, invites her out to lunch. It's then when she's knocked out in the parking lot by her and brought back to Dorines basement and locked in with all the other stiffs. Kim getting in touch with Norah's boyfriend Danial, Michael Imperioli, to warn him about how unstable Dorine is as well as Norah being alone with her that afternoon. This has has him driving to the Douglas house looking for her only to find that Kim was right about Dorine, dead right, and that he and Norah were soon to pay the price for not listening to her.Strange but interesting and not for everyones tastes "Office Killer" takes a while to get off the ground but once it gets going you can't really take your eye off it.Carol Kane as Dorine is her usual quite and passive self at first but slowly goes postal as the pressure of her job, and putting up with her nagging mom, gets to her and drives Dorine over the brink. We also get an insight of Dorine's relationship with both her mom and dad Peter Douglas, Eric Bogosian,in a number of flashback sequences. The flashbacks indicate that she not only was sexually abused by Peter when she was a young girl but was also responsible for the car accident that took his life, and ended up crippling her mom for life. Which may have well been the reason for her distorted mental state as an adult.