Still Life: The Fine Art of Murder (1990) User Reviews

A low budget and predictable serial killer genre

[Ed-Shullivan · 2/10 · 6 May 2015]

if you still have time left before deciding to rent or purchase this boring and predictable low budget thriller than save your money. This so-called thriller (I prefer to call it thrill less) revolves around three friends who share side by side lofts in an abandoned manufacturing building. Jason Gedrick plays a struggling musician named Peter Sherwood who lives with his pretty news correspondent girlfriend Nellie Ambrose played by Jessica Steen. The third wheel/stooge in this plot is a struggling flute player named Teddy Bullock played by Steve Shellen who makes ends meet by tending bar.

Every 10 minutes or so some non-descript vagrant or bag lady is murdered by a so called serial killer named AK (The Art Killer) who leaves his trade mark "AK" near the picture perfect piece of art he has created with the body or bodies he leaves behind.

As could be predicted the so called star of this low budget film actor Jason Gedrick is the prime suspect that the police are investigating for this string of murders. Heck the budget for this film was so tight that the producers could only put one detective on the case. I am having a hard time not providing a spoiler alert since the budget and the plot are so thin (there is only three characters who could possibly be the serial killer? ....duh) that it won't take anyone very long to figure out who the killer is and why the killer is murdering people.

I picked the film as it was filmed in my hometown of Toronto. But once again the budget was so small that they must have filmed the entire movie in a two block circumference, in one evening and with limited lighting and sound equipment. I was bored out of my gourd and I can only muster up a 2 out of 10 rating since Jason Gedrick and Jessica Steen did an adequate job with the thin script that they had to work with. This should be an avoid at all cost films.

With Little Talent Available, Very Little Is Accomplished.

[rsoonsa · 1/10 · 7 August 2005]

Filmed in a Toronto that is meant to depict New York City, this carelessly produced low-budget piece is loosely organized from its beginning, with most of its shortcomings stemming from a scenario concerning a serial killer operating in a rundown artist's loft district, the victims being indigents who, after being shot in the head, are ensconced within over-sized picture frames and arranged as pastiches of popular paintings, e.g., Whistler's Mother, with an accompanying "A.K." (Art Killer) signature. A painfully untalented musician, Peter Sherwood (Jason Gedrick), whose uninventive electronic ability with keyboard and sampler fails to bring him fiscal success, his live-in girlfriend Nellie (Jessica Steen), and their performing artist pal Teddy (Stephen Shellen) reside within the stricken area amid the homicide hullabaloo, with Nellie a New York television journalist reporting upon the slayings as they occur. A trifling attempt is made to depict how the killer has become a "popular" figure with fringe members of the citizenry, and Nellie and Teddy each enjoys benefits from publicity, but when Peter is assaulted by a pair of non-lethal "A.K." copycats and subsequently attached to a frame in a junkyard, this particular media event has come too near the trio for their comfort. Additionally, local police, essentially it would seem limited in number to one rather seedy detective, have begun to suspect Sherwood of being "A.K." as some type of disturbed ploy with which to further his stuttering music career, and personal forms of danger increase for Peter and his kidnapped lover. With a working title of ART KILLER FRAMED wisely changed, this film, despite its macabre theme and trappings of violence, lacks that important ingredient of suspense, critical to all genres, since even a semi-comatose viewer will have solved the case in short order, and no character as portrayed will gain audience sympathy. Direction is soft, particularly noticeable when players are forced to weakly ad lib, and post-production efforts fail to correct flaws, notably relative to the generally poorly written dialogue and other sound issues, and the unimpressive actors obviously lack oversight; requisite attention to planning plainly was not available for this work.

It's not still life, if it's death.

[FieCrier · 2/10 · 23 November 2007]

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.