Murder, Anyone?

“Are you telling me that I’m just words on a page?”

Who needs stage direction when you can’t even agree on the names of your characters?!  Welcome to the freewheeling antics of Murder, Anyone? Where even someone arriving in a chicken costume is a welcome addition to the staging of the absurd.

"both witty and charming"


This meta-heavy movie might not be for everyone, but for anyone at all curious as to the whims and the wheezes of the creative process, well, Murder, Anyone? has your ticket for existentialism escapism by way of the Sunday matinee.

Shaking up the stage with chicken costumes, ballads about spiders, first loves, and murder most foul (or is that FOWL?!), two writers attempt to write the great American murder mystery by way of the strange and absurd, yet their ongoing arguments about what their characters should and shouldn’t be doing (cocaine, anyone?) come to life right before the audiences while they write . . . or argue about . . . their play.  Plot twist!

The banter is bright and the horror/comedy elements are broad as they go back and forth over the characters in their play, what they should be wearing, who they should be strangling, and all the reasons why.  It’s a play about psycho killers, their bloody tennis rackets, and Picasso as a costume party sets the stage for a robbery and a horribly bloody scene of murder.Murder, Anyone?

Murder, Anyone? is both witty and charming as two aging playwrights try their hands at crafting the next avant garde thriller, unaware that their story - warts and all - is coming to life for the audience watching this movie.  Embracing elements of B-movie history and the creative process itself, this is fun, fun stuff.  It is episodic as each part of the play brings a break in their arguing until, as we watch their attempts fail, they realize that Murder, Anyone? Is going nowhere. 

Time to start over!  Eventually, the play stumbles itself creation and the film - proving to be continuously unexpected - brings some unexpected zombies and a heavy dose of meta into its dogeared pages.

The feature, an exciting new horror comedy concept about manifestation, stars Kristos Andrews (“The Bay”), Galadriel Stineman (“The Middle”), Maurice LaMarche (“Pinky and the Brain”), Spencer Breslin (The Kid, Zoom), and Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland.

3/5 stars

Film Details

Murder, Anyone?

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:

Director
: James Cullen Bressack
Writer:
Gordon Bressack
Cast:
Kristos Andrews; Galadriel Stineman; Maurice LaMarche
Genre
: Comedy | Horror
Tagline:
Trust No One
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor:
Uncork'd Entertainment
Official Site:
Release Date:
February 7, 2023
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:

Synopsis: Two playwrights, George and Charlie, are tasked with the challenge of creating the next "avant-garde, surrealistic, mind-bending neo-noire thriller". As they write, the story comes to life in real time. However, their own emotions and arguments also begin to manifest on film, creating sharp twists and turns that affect the entire movie. Filled with hilarity and chaos, Murder, Anyone? is a comedic play-within-a-play-within-a-movie that contemplates the complexities of language, art, theater, film and more.

Art

Murder, Anyone?