Cyrus (2010)

An independent TV reporter and her cameraman interview a man in regards to a serial killer the man knew by the name of Cyrus. The man traces back through the story of the serial killer and why he became the monster he is.

Not to be confused with the Jonah Hill starring comedy film of the same name, Cyrus: Mind of a Serial killer is a 2010 horror film which I’m guessing not many people will have seen. I hope I’m wrong, but it bounced around some film festivals before ending up on DVD here in the UK, and I can’t find any information about how much the film actually grossed.

Another movie with the ‘based on real events‘ tagline, research tells me that it is based on the serial killer ‘Fritz Haarmann’, with some other influences thrown in for good measure.

The movie shows an independent television reporter Maria (Danielle Harris) who along with her cameraman Greg (Corey Gibbons) forms a small independent news crew. They are following up a lead and head out to interview a man who has information regarding a serial killer known as ‘Cyrus‘ or more affectionately ‘The County Line Cannibal’. The man they are interviewing is Emmett (played by Lance Henriksen) and then the movie shows us in flashbacks and cut-aways who Cyrus (Brian Krause) is and why he does what he does.

Danielle Harris interviewing Lance Henriksen

Emmett seems to have intimate knowledge of Cyrus’s killing methods, and recounts the tales of the County Line Cannibal’s final 7 victims to the small crew, explaining the disappearance of three young college girls the reporters were initially investigating. Emmett tells how Cyrus pretty much went completely insane and killed his wife, the person she was cheating with, and their son, and then pulled a ‘Sweeney Todd’ and started serving people at his restaurant. He would kill people for just about any reason, or sometimes, no reason at all. How does he know this stuff? C’mon, you know I’m not going to spoil anything. I will say that whilst it may sound straight forward, there is definitely enough on show here to surprise and entertain.

Cyrus – Brian Krause

It’s a low-budget movie for sure. There aren’t too many locations used, but it still looks good and never gets boring. There is a bit of the red stuff on show, but don’t be expecting a blood bath here folks. Aside from a few snippets of murder and torture, a lot of the movie is about the mystery and suspense, and whilst it was a different approach to what I was expecting when I saw they were hunting a serial killer, I enjoyed it. Yet I see this film has actually been banned in a few countries, maybe I’m just too desensitized if I thought this was quite tame.

The main criticisms I have seen when researching this is people saying it’s a cliché-ridden affair that plays out like almost every other serial killer-profiling horror movie out there. I mean, yeah, all the stereotypes for every serial killer are there. He’s a loner, he was abused as a child and he had bad relationships with women. But this isn’t the movies fault as such, as if it is based on true events and real life serial killers, then the villain here has to have these traits surely? Otherwise he wouldn’t fit the mould of any serial killer they are taking stories from. I also saw a few people label it with the dreaded ‘torture porn‘ tag. I swear people say that as they have heard it somewhere and feel they will seem cool if they throw it out there. I hate the term, and it definitely doesn’t apply to this film.

Henriksen and Krause are the stand outs here. Despite being a huge fan of the beautiful Danielle Harris, she doesn’t have a lot to work with, as most of her scenes are interviewing Henriksen’s character. He is excellent and gives a superb and subtle performance as the man with all the information. Equally, Krause excels as the killer, flipping from a nice calm man one minute, to a psychotic hunting rapist the next. Their performances deserve to be seen by a wider audience.

Wrapping up, there are a lot of serial killer films out there. This isn’t up there trying to compete with ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. And if you are looking for an excellent low-budget film in this mould then maybe you should check out the much superior ‘Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer‘. However, Cyrus is a good, solid entry into the genre, but nothing more I’m afraid. The main 3 leads all give great performances that are at least worthy of your time, and I hope at least some of you are tempted to give this a watch if you ever get the chance.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on January 19, 2013

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