Killer Book Club – Netflix Review (2/5)

KILLER BOOK CLUB on Netflix is a new Spanish horror movie (org. title: El club de los lectores criminales). I expected to enjoy this and liked the plot on paper. And yes, this could have been a good horror movie. It just isn’t. Read our full Killer Book Club movie review here!

KILLER BOOK CLUB is a new Netflix horror movie from Spain (org. title: El club de los lectores criminales). As someone who loves most Spanish productions, especially Spanish genre productions, I was very excited about this new Netflix production.

Way too excited, it quickly turned out. As good as this movie sounds on paper, it comes across as a spoof on several horror franchises. But not in a funny or camp way. No, just in a serious way that makes it feel tone-deaf to horror fans. Yes, I was very disappointed.

Continue reading our full Killer Book Club movie review below. Find it on Netflix from August 25, 2023.

The simple plot

For a classic teen slasher horror movie to have a simple plot is usually a good thing. In Killer Book Club, a costume joke ends in a fatal accident, which then results in a pact of silence. The only alternative would be for most or all of them to end up in jail. Of course, this “joke” was never an actual joke and much more of a revenge situation, but okay. You’ll see!

Anyway, now this group of young people – who seem to have nothing in common except reading horror stories and not agreeing on which are good – are threatened by an anonymous writer. This anonymous writer is using a Fanfic platform to describe how they will all die one by one.

And then they do start dying brutal deaths, one by one.

Of course, they are all torn between having to trust each other and not trusting one another at all. Who’s the victim and who’s the killer? To me, this was dreadfully obvious from the very beginning, so obviously, it made for a rather irritating movie.

You could have been a contender!

It is no secret that I am especially disappointed by this movie because I expected more. I figured this could be a new great Spanish horror movie for the next generation. A Netflix horror gem. But no. Instead we get a mix-and-match story that “borrows” from everything but ends up with nothing.

Instead of being an homage to the horror franchises, it’s clearly inspired by, Killer Book Club is proof that good horror isn’t this simple to create!

For Killer Book Club, you should think Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer but with a dash of Final Destination and a rudely (yes, rudely) predictable killer. No, I won’t give spoilers here, but my first guess was accurate. And this immediate assumption was so ridiculously easy to get confirmed again and again.

You can watch Killer Book Club on Netflix!

Carlos Alonso Ojea is the director of Killer Book Club which seems to be his first feature film. This new horror movie is just 1 hour and 29 minutes long, but it feels much longer. The screenplay comes from another Carlos with the full name of Carlos García Miranda. I’m not entirely certain if it’s the story or directing that just does not work for me here.

The cast includes familiar faces such as Iván Pellicer (Ánimas), Veki Velilla (Yrreal), Priscilla Delgado (A League of Their Own series), and Álvaro Mel (Paraíso).

However, while no one in the cast is bad, their characters are just stereotypes that do nothing good for the movie. And don’t even get me started on the grossly inappropriate and unnecessary steamy scene between two teenagers. Good Lord, how I wanted this movie to be over sooner rather than later.

Look, if you enjoy horror movies with a slasher theme and a mystery killer, then surely you’ll want to check out Killer Book Club on Netflix. My only hope is that you’ll enjoy it more than I did. If you’re reading this review before watching it, there’s a chance you will. If nothing else, because your expectations will be much lower than mine were.

Killer Book Club (org. title: El club de los lectores criminales) is on Netflix from August 25, 2023.

Details

Director: Carlos Alonso Ojea
Writer: Carlos García Miranda
Cast: Veki Velilla, Iván Pellicer, Álvaro Mel, Daniel Grao, Priscilla Delgado, Iván López, Carlos Alcaide, María Cerezuela, Ane Rot, Hamza Zaidi, Carmela Lloret