THE KILLER INSIDE ME
By Robert Weinbach
From Jim Thompson’s acclaimed novel
From Jim Thompson’s acclaimed novel
Log Line
Small
town, Southwest deputy sherrif, Lou Ford, likeable, respected,
compassionate, good ol' boy, conceals psychopathic streak. Lou commits
series of murders to cover-up murder of Joyce Lakeland, a prostitute
with whom he has had a powerful and intense SM relationship.
SYNOPSIS
Lou
Ford is a likeable, respected deputy sherrif in Cental City, Texas.
He is the nicest guy in town and a pillar of society, a good catch for
Amy Stanton, a schoolteacher whom he has known since high school. Lou
is a social success, highly intelligent, even esoteric and elitist in
his broad personal and academic knowlege, but keeps this hidden, even
appears somewhat as a country bumpkin.He reads philosophy and erudite
literature. He is compassionate and likable except when he needles
people with down home homilies. He laughs a lot playing a social role
to cover his invisible person, in reality, a psychopathic killer
afflicted with paranoiac schizophrenia.In Ford's sado-masochistic relationship with Joyce Lakeland, a prostitute, lies the immanent murder of Amy, who loves him and wants to marry him. Ford has postponed this ingeniously because he knows what is wrong with him and that a day of judgment must come when he will show himself without the disguise of his other personality that he dreads. In the developing story, the townspeople, astonishingly, know from the beginning that the deputy has done the series of murders culminating in Amy's death. Yet, they never know until they choose to believe that he is the one who must be punished for them. They must enter the theological maze into which Ford has decoyed them and choose the killer because they can find him no other way. Suspense is generated in the movements by which Ford leads his pursuers to himself.
The project role requires both a director and actor for the role of Lou, of profound psychological insight and technical virtuosity capable of generating great compassion and understanding of human character. Lou Ford is a tragic figure of existential anguish suffering from a deep and chronic personality disorder, aware that he carries inside him his own destruction. He is fatalistic about this reality, yet hopeful of postponing it.