Scott LeBrun AJ Bowen plays Garrick Turrell, a serial killer with a pathological need to kill. He escapes from custody, and while he is on the lam the story of Sarah (Amy Seimetz) plays out. Sarah is a recovering alcoholic just trying to get from day to day; she is romanced by a member of her AA group named Kevin (Joe Swanberg). Eventually the connection between these stories is revealed.While absolutely no match for "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" (the high water mark for this genre), "A Horrible Way to Die" is an entertaining, and very grim, independently made film. It's noteworthy for the way it portrays average American folks living their lives, and for taking a fairly low key approach to its darker material. It's gory enough to suit certain tastes, but director / editor Adam Wingard doesn't concern himself with being overly stylish. He deliberately goes for a rather drab look for the film, and the only major annoyance that this viewer had regarding the technical aspects was the way that damn camera would refuse to stay still. The soundtrack choices are somewhat amusing / interesting, considering the choice of a choir at times.The performances are naturalistic and absorbing. Bowen remains utterly calm throughout; you won't see any scenery chewing on his part. Seimetz, very attractive but in a non-flashy way, is very appealing. Swanberg is quite likable in his role.The script isn't perfect, but it is intriguing the way that it jumps forward and backward in time. It might not be that easy for people to follow it. The tale does come complete with some "big" plot twists.Overall, a decent attempt to take a look at the fascination - and even hero worship - lavished upon serial killers by some of society's individuals.Seven out of 10.

James Tabor I was terribly disappointed in this film by a director, Joe Swanberg, whom I had come to admire and follow quite avidly. I did not so much object to the wavy camera technique, the flashbacks making the narrative sequence a challenge to follow, or even the muffled dialog and confusing lighting. The story itself was utterly and totally inane, stupid, ridiculous. It was not that it had a "surprise" ending but that the ending was utterly absurd. Truly a disappointment and all the more so coming from Swanberg, who has done such great work. How Amy Seimetz agreed to participate I have no idea...she is truly one of the great actresses of our time.

jgc5060 A horrible way to die is nothing more than a horrible way to make a movie. It looks like they just blasted some lights, cranked the shutter speed and did hand-held to make an "artistic" movie. Well, there is nothing "artistic" about this, and this is coming from someone who is a huge fun of unique and original F-U Hollywood film making. I'm a huge fan of Gaspar Noe, and I appreciate directors who "break the rules." These guys do nothing but shaky hand-held the whole time, and man is it annoying! The acting and music is good, but I feel like the camera man has never operated a camera before! It's the same type of shot over, and over, and over. You couldn't beat a dead horse any more than they used out of focus shots to transition scenes, and hand-held shakiness to show hectic moments in the movie.I could understand if they used some hand-held and shakiness, but maybe for 5 percent of the movie, not 95 percent! Even if your a film student, I don't think you'll like this. It looks like they shot it all in 3 days. The camera work is a far cry from human vision. Human's don't float their eyes aimlessly in a shaky haze. The only point of view shot is the point of view of a really bad camera man! It's like a really depressing and poorly made reality show.Please don't compare this movie to anything Gaspar Noe has done. Gaspar Noe's camera style isn't shaky vision, it's Gaspar Noe vision, and isn't easy to replicate, as these guys probably found out. Everything Gaspar Noe does is delivered with an original and innovative sense of technical brilliance, which this movie doesn't touch with a mile long pole. Gaspar Noe films make you interested and actually want to watch the rest of the movie, not take your eyes off screen because you have a head ache.This movie is not much more than a student film with a really nice camera and good actors. The camera work just makes it impossible to actually get into. The script doesn't really go anywhere, and there's not much suspense. The music, color grading, and acting are all decent but unfortunately, they don't know how to set up a tripod or dolly, so you have to torture yourself to see if the acting is good or not. Please invest in a tripod, or Steadicam, or just quit floating around like a film student trying to be artistic! Hand-held film making can be really awesome, but this is a very poor example. The camera-work in Blairwitch Project was better, and they didn't even know how to use a camera! Hold the camera against your head if you have to, the more points of contact the more stable. What a horrible way to make a movie.

Richard_vmt This film deserves high marks for the all-important mood making. The integration of music and sound, infernal or merely funereal, and sometimes reaching up into the natural (police sirens) makes the presence of evil constantly there even when just driving along an empty road.The dementia in this film is not merely the efforts of a single mad man but the hellish world where abductions, torture, rape and murder are accepted. And it does this realistically.In this type of film there are always the moments of normalcy contrasted with the evil. But here, the only normalcy is in AA meetings which are themself like the reflective upward facing surface of Hell. This fills the whole film with a feeling of pity and despair.But the film has a fatal flaw. The plot is unfollowable. Also, owing to the dark nature of the exposure, it was not always easy to identify characters. This is further exasperated by the awkward use of flash back. So that while I saw the beautiful naked woman dead in the tub--and it was a disturbing image--I could not say whether it was the same woman in later scenes clothed and still alive--or whether it was a serial killing. I certainly had no bearings at all. The film shows promise but results are defective.