Ever wonder what happened to Max Records, the young precocious boy who played Max in Spike Jonze’s “Where The Wild Things Are”? Well, he’s now 18 years old and leading SXSW entry “I Am Not A Serial Killer,” which made its world premiere last night in Austin. It’s a very adult role to say the least and it’s about a homicidal Midwestern teen who has to kill a mass murderer in order to stop becoming one himself.
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Directed by Billy O’Brien — a BAFTA-nominated writer/director whose credits include the horror “Isolation” and the sci-fi effort “Scintilla”— “I Am Not A Serial Killer” sounds like a fascinating take on the inner struggles to fight dark impulses, as they come up against our sense of moral right and wrong. Here’s the synopsis:
Sixteen-year old John Cleaver (Max Records) is dangerous, and he knows it. He’s obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn’t want to become one. Terrible impulses constantly tempt him, so for his own sake, and the safety of those around, he lives by rigid rules to keep himself “good” and “normal”. However, when a real monster shows up in his town he has to let his dark side out in order to stop it – but without his rules to keep him in check, he might be more dangerous than the monster he’s trying to kill. The film is based on the first installment in the John Wayne Cleaver trilogy, a popular book series written by Dan Wells.
“I Am Not A Serial Killer” also features “Back To The Future” star Christopher Lloyd plus Laura Fraser and Karl Geary. The film has two more screenings at SXSW and you can check out details here. We’ve got an exclusive clip from the film that you can watch below, followed by another recently revealed clip and the film’s poster.