A Prayer Before Dawn first published by RealCrime Magazine A Prayer Before Dawn tells the real-life story of Billy Moore, a muay thai boxer who was arrested in Thailand on charges of handling stolen goods and firearms, and sentenced to three years in prison. A long-term addict, he had already served time in Britain, and had…
American Animals first published by RealCrime Magazine “This is not based on a true story,” reads text at the beginning of Bart Layton’s American Animals – only for the words ‘not based on’ to disappear. This latest from the director of documentary The Imposter (2012) reconstructs a very real library heist that was conducted at the…
Sweet Virginia first published by RealCrime Magazine The twin China Brothers had their debut, the Coen-esque Australia-set thriller Crawl, in 2011, with Paul on writing/directing duties and Benjamin producing. In 2012 their follow-up spec script Sweet Virginia, with its superficially similar scenario of a hired killer creating chaos in a small town, was near the top…
Caniba first published by RealCrime Magazine “There’s no reason to make this.” says Jun Sagawa to his brother Issei. “I don’t see how anybody could enjoy it.” Jun is talking about the manga open before him, written by his brother as a graphic memoir of the murder, necrophilia and cannibalism that Issei executed in Paris in…
Dark Night first published by RealCrime Magazine Dark Night opens with a close-up of a woman’s eye, lit alternatively in blue and red. For a few instants, that image and those colours promise the heavily stylised sensationalism of the Italian whodunnit genre known as giallo – before it becomes clear that the bright lights, far from…
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri first published by RealCrime Magazine Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) is fearless and angry. It has been seven months since her daughter Angela was ‘raped while dying’ in the (fictional) town of Ebbing, and now Mildred has decided to rent three billboards to advertise the lack of progress in the police investigation,…
Beast first published by RealCrime Magazine “You’ve got blood on your hands,” Moll (Jessie Buckley) tells Pascal (Johnny Flynn). They have just met, as he, toting a hunting rifle, has rescued her from being date-raped by a pickup from the nightclub. The blood, as Pascal points out, is from the rabbit that he just poached –…
American Made first published by RealCrime Magazine American Made claims to be “based on a true story”, but the life and death of Adler ‘Barry’ Seal are mired in all manner of controversy and conspiracy theory. According to the film, he was a cigar-smuggling TWA pilot recruited by the CIA in 1978 first to fly reconnaissance…
Live By Night first published by RealCrime Magazine Boston, 1926. Irish-American Great War Veteran Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) is breaking bad: having determined never again to serve anyone but himself, he runs a small stick-up operation, to the horror of his policeman father (Brendan Gleeson). A romantic entanglement sees him caught in a turf war between…
Hard Times first published by RealCrime Magazine A stranger breezes into town. It’s like the beginning of any western, except that this is the early Thirties, and Chaney (Charles Bronson) rides in on a freight train rather than a horse. Still, he is an archetypal hero, concealing beneath his unassuming, taciturn exterior a peerless fighting prowess. The…
I Am Not A Serial Killer first published by RealCrime Magazine “John, you have a lot of predictors for serial killer behaviour, but predictors are just that: they predict what might happen, not what will happen. You’re in control of your destiny. You’re a good person, John.” With these words, psychotherapist Dr Neblin (Karl Geary) tries…