There was a lady Doreen...

grahamcarter-1

Conceptual portraitist Cindy Sherman made her directorial debut (and only narrative film to date) with 'Office Killer' (1997). Sherman in her work has continually sought to challenge and raise important questions about the role and representation of women in society and media. It is interesting that she has stated a major influence in her film is Dario Argento, who has a negative reputation so far as his portrayal of women is concerned.

Sherman tells the tale of 'Doreen Douglas,' a plain and unassuming office worker. During a period of economic rationalization she is forced to work from home, in more ways than one. Doreen cares for her mother at home (she was accidentally responsible for her father's death), and is at work is the kind of longtime employee who often ends up being relegated to menial tasks (by virtue of her being the only one able to do them). A tsunami of office infighting is happening resulting in nobody liking each other very much; and they're all coming down with the flu. When Doreen accidentally kills a male co-worker while putting in overtime at the office, she stumbles headlong into murder as empowerment tool. Before long, the magazine is understaffed and Doreen has a basement full of corpses with their rotting fingers taped to their keyboards.

While a failure as the satire it was meant to be, 'Office Killer' demonstrates the impact of Argento's work on horror cinema generally, and interestingly here on feminist cinema. In addition to traumatic childhood flashbacks we have a roll call of Argento stylistic influences with the primary colours, tracking shots, asymmetrical framing, dark shadows, foregrounding of objects, empty buildings after dark… and of course the pussycats.

score 5/10

grahamcarter-1 10 June 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3727987/