YMMV / Killer Joe

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Dottie's killing of Chris her way of incorporating a Mercy Kill upon him rather than helping Joe?
• Complete Monster: "Killer" Joe Cooper himself is a mad detective who moonlights as a hitman. Contracted by Chris Smith and his father Ansel to kill Chris's mother Adele for insurance money, Joe forces Chris to let him take his mentally ill sister Dottie on a date when he cannot pay upfront. Intimidating Dottie into sleeping with him, Joe begins living with the Smiths and regularly uses Dottie for sex before killing Adele, only to discover the beneficiary of her insurance policy is her current partner Rex. Catching and killing Rex, Joe reveals Ansel's new wife Sharla's infidelity to him as he brutally beats and rapes her, threatening to kill the whole family lest they give him Dottie in lieu of paying him.
• He Really Can Act: Virtually every critic who saw the film agreed that not only did McConaughey do a fantastic job, but its also a career redefining performance.
• Jerkass Woobie: Chris.
  • Ansel as well, arguably. Yes, it's true he was A. Willing to have his ex-wife killed in order to get the insurance, B. Willing to flat out suggest that Chris kill himself, and C. Willing to have Joe assault his current wife. It should also be noted however that he was more or less roped into this situation by Chris, was even against the idea until being completely convinced, and was actually defensive of Sharla at times (he even made Chris promise to give Sharla a cut of the money once the deed was done) until he found out she cheated on him and was trying to get all the money for herself.
  • He's also the one who seems most stoic enough to defer to Joe's instructions on a regular basis, antagonizing him the least out of any of the adults, showing either that he realizes how much it would hurt to cross Joe or that he is just generally too mellow to bother throwing things into his favor.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Joe crossed it when he forced Sharla to mimic oral sex on a chicken leg (maybe earlier, given he has a relationship with Dottie of a sketchy nature).
  • Ansel and Sharla crossed it when they tried to help Joe kill Chris to save their skins.
• Signature Scene: The infamous chicken drumstick scene.
• Squick: The "chicken leg fellatio" scene is one of the two reasons (the other being a character getting beaten multiple times in the head with a tin can) why this movie was originally NC-17 (now unrated). In fact, the R-rated cut was made mostly to lessen the scenes impact.

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