Shockingly enough, a blackly comic crime thriller that revolves around a hitman agreeing to kill the mother of his drug-dealing client in exchange for taking the virginity of his young sister generated plenty of controversy, but that still didn’t stop Killer Joe from winning strong reviews from critics a decade ago.
The Exorcist director William Friedkin’s discomforting genre tale may have flopped at the box office after failing to recoup its $10 million budget from theaters, but it nonetheless marked another key stepping stone in the McConaissance, with Matthew McConaughey knocking it out of the park once more in the title role as he ascended back up the industry ladder.
As you may have expected given the content, Killer Joe was awarded the dreaded NC-17 rating for “graphic disturbing content involving violence and sexuality, and a scene of brutality.”, which effectively killed its chances of finding an audience. A heavily-edited R-rated version as released on home video, though, but it didn’t quite have the same impact.
However, the debauched stylings of Friedkin’s southern fried modern noir hasn’t put off Prime Video subscribers, with Killer Joe soaring up the ranks to become the third most-watched title on the platform in the United States, as per FlixPatrol.
It definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve got a taste for movies that don’t mind exploring the darker, seedier, and altogether shadier side of small town living, then there’s a hidden gem just waiting to be found by those who pay their monthly fee for Amazon’s in-house streaming service.