Carekiller has a pretty cool concept. A man with some sort of neurological disorder murders the person charged with tending to him. From there, when he’s not sitting at home, he steps outside and faces the larger world. Again, on paper, this is a really interesting premise. This film, however, is super low-budget and restrained by that fact. Still, at the very least, there’s a promising nugget of an idea here.

Written and directed by Evan Jacobs, this film has a very, very small cast. Jacobs plays the caretaker, and Chris Lohman plays Clifton, the man who does the murdering. Really, we spend just about all 50 minutes of the film with Clifton. He picks off the caretaker within the first ten minutes or so. If you’re expecting some grisly gore scene, you may be disappointed. The murder pretty much happens off-screen and features audible punching and smacking sounds without ever really seeing a body. We do see some body parts, including a rubbery hand that Clifton toys with after he’s done killing. Again, this is a very, very low-budget film. As to why exactly Clifton kills the caretaker, well, that’s not really clear. Maybe his irritation towards him simply grew and grew, until one day, he snapped. Maybe he just wanted to watch a movie on his iPad or browse the web, and the dude bothered him so much that murder seemed like the only option. There’s not much character motivation in this film, so just take it for what it is.

Clifton’s neurological issues are pretty clear from the get-go. When the caretaker tries to speak to him, for instance, he mostly stares at his iPad. He also spends much of the film lounging on the couch, sometimes rearranging the same four or five DVDs over and over again on a coffee table. These scenes can feel especially long and quite a slog to get through, but they do document an important aspect to the main character and his obsession over little things. Lohman does a decent job in the lead role. In fact, he doesn’t speak or really make a peep, for that matter, so the acting is conveyed mostly through facial expressions and/or body language.

Carekiller is a film that’s definitely not for everyone. However, for those who like indie horror movies, and I mean really, really indie horror films with a minuscule budget, there’s something here to appreciate. The concept is clever, and this very much feels like a labor of love. It may have worked better as a short, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t mind watching Clifton go on a more gruesome rampage.

5.5 Out of 10