The Psychology of Killing

A Darren Maxwell film

Introduction

The Psychology of Killing (or as is known by the more commonly abbreviated term "Psy-of-K"), is based around the idea of what happens when you have a kidnapper/victim story but all the stereotypical rules of the Hollywood variety suddenly don't apply.

The film is intended to explore the inner workings of James K. Beverson and to discover why this man has no remorse in the kidnapping and killing of women. Considering his motives are not related to sex, greed, power or money, we are simply left with the uncertainty of trying to understand why such a person would commit such terrible acts against females when no reasoning is apparent.

James K. Beverson is modelled on the kind of man most of us either know or have seen in our lives. He is the type of person who simply does not fit into society and is essentially shunned/ignored by those around him. The life of James is of a man who is always alone, with very few if any friends, has no relationship prospects and is forever envious of the successful people in the world around him. James is not mentally disturbed nor intellectually inferior, yet he simply doesn't "click" with people and is easily threatened and intimidated by them, especially beautiful women. So what I've done is hypothosise whether it is possible to have a man like this turn into a methodical killer if certain events in his life pushed him from one negative state to another. In its purist form, this is what PsyofK is all about.

From a historical perspective, this film is inspired by a sequence I saw from the film Midnight Express. I remember having a coffee with some friends at a café one evening and playing on the TV in front of me was the sequence where the American victim is being interrogated by the local authorities. The victim was suspended naked from his feet off the floor and the scene had no qualms in showing any of this in detail. It was at this point I asked myself "how does someone direct a scene like that?" which then turned into a more relevant question of "could I ever direct a scene like that?" Considering I try to adopt the philosophy of "pushing the envelope" as far as my writing is concerned, I was intrigued as to whether I could make a film that would be uncomfortable for people to watch whilst at the same time not have any gore, violence or be sexually agressive or suggestive in anyway. The result is PsyofK and what I especially like about the film is that there is no physical interaction between James and the victim - whose torment is purely auditory. Make no mistake, this story is deliberately cold and unbalanced and was even described by a film making friend of mine as being "nasty".

So why am I making PsyofK? Quite simply I'm taking on the challenge to create a really hard level suspense drama just to see if I have the ability to put a product like this together successfully. I am under no illusions that this film isn't going to usher in a lot of viewers, however, more than anything PsyofK really is a test for myself as a film maker and story teller. As an added bonus to this, if I can direct this film successfully, then I should be able to direct any form of high intense psychological drama.

Darren Maxwell - Writer/Director

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