Summary
The Calendar Killer is not just a serial killer thriller but a haunting exploration of personal torment and domestic abuse interwoven within a suspenseful narrative.
You can be forgiven if, halfway through The Calendar Killer, you forget that the film (based on Sebastian Fitzek’s best-selling thriller novel) is about a serial killer.
And in some ways, it is not really about evading a serial killer at all. The story is about personal torment.
To present the premise: Klara (played by Luise Heyer) is going to die by midnight unless she kills her husband. Those are the terms set by the infamous serial killer dubbed ‘The Calendar Killer’ that’s terrorizing the city. The killer gives their victims two options. Either they are killed, or their partner is, on a specific date (hence the word “calendar”).
Understanding her terrifying predicament, Klara rings a telephone safety helpline for lonely women on their way home. The person who takes her call is Jules (played by Sabin Tambrea), who slowly learns about her ordeal.
Once the premise is established, personal torment comes to the fray. The primary make-up of the film is Klara navigating her situation while detailing it all to Jules, who is trying to help her. But ironically, the never-ending phone call feels like a dark therapy session more than a serial killer hunting down their victim. We learn about Klara and Jules as the script divulges into their personal lives.
Their demons unravel slowly over time, giving anecdotes to the audience. More importantly, Klara details her abusive relationship with her husband, which is significant to the story. You never know why the domestic abuse she suffers is important until the end, but that does not make it any less compelling.
And that’s why I didn’t know what The Calendar Killer was about. Maybe it’s not meant to be about anything in particular. Perhaps it’s a narrative convoy built to raise awareness about domestic abuse and that even women who suffer at the hands of their husbands still do not dare speak out or ring the police even when they are destined to be killed by a serial killer.
I mean, that’s quite a statement, right? It certainly struck me in the second act that if the serial killer did not even exist, Klara’s personal pain would be intriguing and complex enough to form a feature-length film.
I get the sense that the writer behind the book, Sebastian Fitzek, understands how shit life can be. That we all have demons to contend with. And that the evils in the world are layered within spectrums.
As the viewer, I suspect you are meant to forget that The Calendar Killer is about a killer. It encourages your mind to form ideas elsewhere. Amongst the story’s darkness and the grittiness of the predicament, you are reminded that you are witnessing two characters on the phone, terrified, in the dead of a silent night.
That’s why The Calendar Killer is a good thriller. It has the atmosphere of a serial killer story but the complexities of human frailty weaving around it. It’s not built for sensational moments; the movie is constructed to be thought-provoking.
It helps that the movie’s direction does not subject itself to sensationalism. The director, Adolfo J. Kolmerer, avoided the temptation to slowly evolve this into a thriller-action feature that loses control. The director risks the movie being boring, but fortunately, it pays off. It also helps that the cast shows up, too.
The Calendar Killer deserves our time. There’s a lot to think about, and even if the messages do not sink in, this feature makes a salient statement about domestic abuse.
Read More: What Really Happened at the End of ‘The Calendar Killer’? Who Was The Killer?
