Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: ‘You Might Be The Killer’

Camp owner Sam (Fran Kranz) wakes up in the middle of the woods to discover someone has butchered his counselors. He runs to a cabin and immediately calls his best friend Chuck (Alyson Hannigan), a comic shop employee and horror buff. Originally intending to get advice on how to survive the night, soon Sam is seeking Chuck’s help to jog his memory and make that sure he’s not the person who committed these violent acts.

I didn’t know what to expect when I sat in a theater at 12:50pm on Friday. All that I knew about You Might Be The Killer was what the three sentences on Fantastic Fest’s website told me, and it sounded like it could be right up my alley.

What I got was my favorite horror film in years.

When you’re a horror fan, you tend to have specific sub-genres you consider yourself an expert in. For me, it’s slasher movies – I don’t think there’s a slasher film in existence that I haven’t watched. I blame this on Scream being my first real horror movie, it lit a fire in me that I didn’t even know was waiting to be sparked. I rented every slasher film I could get my hands on, I bought every slasher movie documentary released, and I read countless textbooks on the genre. It’s obvious that You Might Be The Killer director Brett Simmons did the same.

There is a beautiful visual style scattered throughout this movie that highlights the two sides of the film. Our two leads are shot in starkly different places; whenever you see Sam or the camp it’s always in a grainy style. It looks exactly like the 1980’s VHS tapes you and your friends used to watch at sleepovers. With the exception of some flashbacks, Sam’s scenes are all masked in darkness and dim lighting. Chuck, however, being separated from the craziness of the camp massacre in a brightly lit comic book shop full of lively and chatty characters. The picture is of a modern HD quality that you’re used to seeing.

This is because we are Chuck. We’re in the modern day listening in on Sam’s experience and how it brings back the 80’s nostalgia we all harbor.

You Might Be the Killer is a film that would fit in with modern meta-horror films like Final Girls and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon but also would not be out of place being marathoned along side classics like Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning, Sleepaway Camp or the still painfully under-appreciated There’s Nothing Out There.

Sorry Hereditary, A Quiet Place and Suspiria… this is my favorite horror film of 2018.

At Fantastic Fest I was lucky enough to get to sit with director Brett Simmons and Producers Thomas P Vitale and Griff Furst. We sat outside an ice cream parlor talking about our favorite horror films and how this film was inspired by a twitter conversation between two famous comic writers during an unreasonably windy Saturday in Austin. Enjoy, and stay tuned for more Fantastic Fest coverage!