Still Life: The Fine Art of Murder

Not a great movie and the tracking on my ex-rental was terrible.

The idea of a killer who makes art out of his victims is nothing new, although in this case, he isn't hiding victims under the art (e.g. inside wax figures), they're quite obviously dead people. The killer gains fans, which is an odd phenomenon that seems to sometimes happen in real life - though usually after the killer is caught, executed, or dies. Perhaps they should have explored that more.

The killer also inspires copycats. One of the main characters is screwed onto a large framed canvas, his mouth duct-taped, and hoisted into the air. This is sort of funny, particularly the label "ART KILLINGS ARE MURDER BY ANY OTHER NAME... Oil and Man on Canvas." The victim here, left alive, is a terrible keyboard player who's been hired by a man he speaks to only on the phone to create music inspired by videotaped images of nuclear explosions and whatnot. His girlfriend is a reporter who covers the real Art Killer.

A friend of the synthesizer and reporter is an actor who fires a real bullet into the air during a theatrical performance, to the surprise of his actress. When someone in the audience calls for a stop, he fires a blank at them. Shades of the surrealists, but there's not too much of interest otherwise.