Neil LaBute's 'Murderous' Stumbles on Tired Thriller Ground

Neil LaBute—the guy who's made some genuinely unsettling character studies over the years—is back with Murderous, a thriller that premiered at Oldenburg International Film Festival. The premise is straightforward: a successful filmmaker gets an unexpected knock on the door from someone he used to work with. Tension, secrets, all that.

But here's the thing: critics are saying the film gets undone by how familiar it all feels. The plot beats play out exactly like you'd expect them to. No real surprises, no moment where you sit back and go "damn, didn't see that coming." When you've got a filmmaker of LaBute's pedigree—a dude who knows how to unsettle people psychologically—falling back on obvious moves is a bigger miss than it would be for somebody else.

It's the kind of project that makes you wonder what went sideways in the room. Did the script need another pass? Was it a timing thing? Hard to say without seeing it ourselves, but the word out of the festival circuit ain't encouraging.

Check the full breakdown to see if there's anything worth your time here.

Read the full story at The Hollywood Reporter → https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/murderous-review-neil-labute-thomas-sadoski-1236705377/