The Suicide Theory (2015)
Steven Ray was never quite normal. But when tragedy strikes in the form of a deadly hit-and-run incident at a city cross walk, his violent and bizarre behavior becomes uncontrollable. One night, as Steven plots his next murder, he meets Percival, whose unsuccessful attempt at suicide not only interferes with Stevens plans, but the chance encounter also introduces the two into each others sad and lonely lives. Percival believes hes cursed after miraculously surviving each suicide attempt and concludes fate brought he and Steven together. So he hires Steven to assist him in suicide. Steven does not believe in fate and thinks Percival is desperate and delusional. But he accepts the offer. Easy money. After Percival continues to miraculously survive each attempt on his life, Steven starts to believe. He tries to help Percival figure out ways to break the curse. And in the process, they form an unlikely friendship through the common bond of tragedy.
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It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Caught this on Netflix this past Wednesday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised."THe SUicide Theory" is a gritty, low-budget thriller about a hit- man who comes into contact with man who wants to be killed. Seems like a match made in heaven right? Wrong. I won't go into the plot much further, but to say that the premise is fresh and exciting is, imo, an under-statement.The film is far from perfect. The make-up looks pretty bad on a nice 4k TV, and i can't say that I didn't see nearly every plot twist from a mile away, i did.But the film still delivers. The acting is surprisingly strong. The plot may not be figured-out by everybody either(not that I'm smarter than anybody, the ideas just hit me right at the right time - you know when you catch a plot twist right when it's set-up). Our lead here in particular is great. His melancholy attitude, along with his cold-heartedness, somehow allows his character to develop and change throughout the film. To me it's these changes that add a certain depth to the film. "The Suicide THeory" does have something to say among all this this violence and macabre. It gets deeper and more thought provoking as it goes.I can recommend this flick without question, but go-in knowing that the writing is hit and miss, at times fantastic, at others a little lazy, and the production values pull away from some decent direction. BUt the acting, the premise, and what turns out to be quite a roller- coaster ride, makes-up for just about everything else.I'm not only giving this a passing grade - I'm edging onto the top 25 for 2015(#16 for now, that's 45 movies through the now 88 watchlist - I'd say rt now it's at the projected cut-off) It could hold onto a spot comes next spring, but it will be close. Easily the lowest budget film to make the list so far, and is a shoe-in for my "Jeremy's B Movie Marathon Lists".You might like this if you liked:"Bringing Out The Dead"(better production values but not better movie), Spiral(similarly low-budget and similar in quality), and Shuffle(slightly better, but probably right there with TST as one of my favorite ultra-low-budget films of the last decade.It takes a lot for a film of this stature to earn a 7/10 ranking in my book. Let alone make my top 25. Check this one out.69/100
I watched this film knowing nothing about the plot, and the premise got me immediately hooked. A killer gets hired by suicidal man to kill him, as he has a "theory" that he cannot die, and will only be able to die once he does not want to die. The killer man job is to figure out how to kill this man, i.e., how to make him not want to die and then kill him. The killer tries to kill him a couple of times, not believing the theory, but fails, until the hard evidence makes him start to consider the theory.Once the premise is established, we get to know little by little the background of both protagonists, and discover how they are somehow connected, and poses the questions is everything happening for a reason? Or is it us that we give reason to the inevitable coincidences that occur in our lives? This is done not subtly at all, but it's a good question to be asked. In the end, we reach a resolution though a series of events that are connected for a reason, or in the other interpretation, through a series of coincidences too strong not to think they were meant to happen. My only minor criticism is that the "twists" are very predictable, but this is minor, since possibly the intention was not to give a shocking twists, but to show how a series of unlikely connections makes us wander if they are happening for a reason, the main question of the movie. Quite interesting though not spectacular film, it did leave me thinking a bit, and I enjoyed my time through the darkness of the tone, the character development, and the questions thrown unanswered by the movie.
I think most reviewers are very over critical. As an avid reader who doesn't care about the author per se, or the genre,and rarely read the back cover, I find the way I approach movies to be more open minded and allow the story to speak for itself rather look for things to criticize as other reviewers. The Suicide Theory is a compelling story that catches your attention almost right off. It's not just the story that is compelling but the character development, the connection to meaning of life (or lack thereof), and the way we deal with grief, our past, our losses, and our fears. The amazing part was how this was all able to play out in film format. It's hard to get these connections across in such a short span of time, but The Suicide Theory did just that. I had no preconceived ideas of what this movie was about, which may be what played to my advantage. I go into movies with an open mind, like a book with blank pages and look for the movie to write the book for me and this one did a great job at that. If you do not over analyze this film there is no reason to not give it a 10. I will not offer any insights into the story as I encourage you to watch for yourself and go in with no preconceived ideas from reviewers, the trailer, or any other ideas of what the movie may or may not be about. Enjoy the experience!
The Suicide Theory is a film I had been waiting for release and it did not disappoint. I am not into dark Films but this one has really surprised me. The leads Steve Mouzakis and Leon Cain really do make the film work with their characters and chemistry. which kept me intrigued and tuned in on their journey. Director Dru Brown and writer Michael J Kospiah and team really did have a vision with some lovely, creative camera shots. Remembering this is an Independent Australian Feature Film it is well worth seeing and supporting. Which shows talent and passion pays off. It will be interesting to see What Dru Brown creates in the future if this is anything to go by. Differently one to watch.