My quick rating – 6.1/10. What the hell did I just watch? That was my immediate thought—again—after revisiting Killers, a deranged little home-invasion thriller that veers way off the rails in the best (and sometimes most baffling) ways. Years ago, I caught this indie oddity and forgot to leave a proper review, but it recently surfaced in a piece about the Menendez brothers, and the parallels to that case make it worth a revisit.
Odessa (Dave Larsen) and Kyle (David Gunn) James aren’t your average suburban sons. They go upstairs one night and murder their parents in cold blood, with creepy smiles to match. Unlike Lyle and Erik Menendez, these two escape prison and take their brand of chaos on the road. Eventually, they land in suburbia, kicking off a home invasion on the unsuspecting Ryan family. From there, Killers becomes increasingly unhinged, abandoning convention and narrative rules in favor of bloody, manic energy.
Directed by Mike Mendez (yes, that’s actually his name), the film looks like it was stitched together by a tight-knit crew with more ambition than budget, and it kind of works. You can feel the passion, the rough edges, and the sheer wildness of the ideas that didn’t all fit neatly into 87 minutes. There’s a scrappy charm in how it’s all thrown together, like a student film that grew teeth.
The acting, while hardly Oscar-worthy, is exactly what it needs to be for this kind of story. Everyone involved seems fully committed to the insanity. Blood flows freely, so gorehounds won’t walk away disappointed. There’s even a ridiculous gun battle that’s as far removed from realism as possible, but in an entertaining, “don’t-take-this-seriously” kind of way.
Stylistically, you can tell Mendez was drinking from the Tarantino well—snappy, offbeat dialogue, pop-culture musings, and sudden bursts of violence all echo that mid-‘90s wave of pulp-inspired crime flicks. Sometimes it lands, sometimes it doesn’t, but it adds to the chaotic fun.
Here’s the thing: Killers is far from perfect, but it’s weirdly memorable. It’s one of those under-the-radar ‘90s thrillers that doesn’t get talked about much but leaves a mark once you’ve seen it. Honestly, it’s the kind of film that would benefit from a proper remake—flesh out the story, expand the characters, and let the mayhem breathe a little more. Hollywood loves remaking the wrong stuff (The Crow, Road House, do I need to continue?), but this is a title that could actually use a modern do-over.
Killers isn’t for everyone. It’s a love-it-or-hate-it kind of movie, and if you’ve read my reviews before, you probably already know which side of that fence you’re on. If you’re in the mood for something offbeat, bloody, and a little bit bonkers, this should scratch that itch. Just don’t expect it to make a whole lot of sense.
Amazon, along with quite a few freebies, has this one to stream.