** (Two stars)
If you had to direct a show like The Simple Life, as Killer Movie's writer-director Jeff Fisher did, chances are you’d probably want to stab someone. That seems to be the germ of inspiration that led to this feature debut. (Fisher's other credits include gems like The Real World/Road Rules Challenge and Nimrod Nation.)
In this formulaic horror movie, a television crew is terrorized by a masked killer who films his own “reality” footage while he kills them. The, uh, "hero" in this tale is Jake, an up-and-coming Hollywood player who is sent to a remote North Dakota town to shoot a reality show about an underdog hockey team. But—OMG!—people are winding up dead left and right, and—whoa, dude!—did I just see a guy with a mask outside my window? Sadly, that's about the level of shock provided by this uninspired effort, which plays the genre so straight and employs such standard horror conventions, it ruins any possibility of suspense. (Sample dialogue: “Lance? Quit messing around! Lance???”) Despite a few clever jokes and one-liners, the film becomes tedious and predictable faster than you can say, “That’s hot.”—Dan Shulman-Means, associate online producer
[This is a TONY staff review, written for the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. It is not considered an official review and should not be read as such. Please think of it as a casual impression from a movie-loving friend.]