The Columnist

It’s hard to deny that The Columnist has a fairly irresistible premise. It’s about a columnist who, mostly because she’s a woman who has opinions online, is frequently the target of social media trolls; she eventually snaps and starts murdering them. It’s a fantastic idea for a film, but the execution is flat. It becomes clear very early on that there’s not enough here for a feature, even one running at a relatively brisk 86 minutes; once the murders commence, the film settles into a repetitive groove and never particularly goes anywhere new. It doesn’t help that the movie doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. It’s darkly comic, but it’s not going for overt laughs, so it’s not a comedy. The main character murders enough people to give Michael Myers a run for his money, but it isn’t particularly tense or suspenseful, so it doesn’t work as a slasher. Katja Herbers is great in the main role, but the film is more interested in satirical quirk than investing in its characters, so it never lands as a character study. That last point is a particular shame; the premise is absolutely dripping with dramatic potential, but director Ivo van Aart doesn’t seem all that interested in exploring it beyond surface-level satire. It actually improves quite a bit in the last ten minutes or so, but it’s not enough to save the film.

** out of ****