Imagine your parents adopt someone because they’re afraid of producing another person like you, with your various mental health issues and ongoing misdiagnoses from several therapists. How much would you hate that sibling and how far would you go to show it? Killer Therapy incoherently answers that question under the threshold of poor analysis by experts who do not fulfill their professional oath.

It all starts with the Langston family adopting a young girl as the newest member of their family. Young Brian (Jonathan Tysor) isn’t happy with this decision as he already feels neglected by his father. After a struggle between both kids, Brian is sent to therapy but something happens during the first session that Brian changes and starts being apathetic towards his surroundings instead of saving his energy to hate everything and everyone. When Brian turns 13 and no one, not even his father, shows up for his party he sets off a chain of events with his own hand that will define his life forever. Brian will see a parade of therapists pass through his life, but does anyone actually care to help him? Does he feel safe or threatened by their presence after what happened with his first therapist? Or is Brian just a temperamental and capricious spoiled brat that snapped the first time his condescending mother said  “no” to him?

This is the kind of movie where you don’t know whether to root for the team trying to help/fix Brian or to root for Brian’s revenge. I ended up rooting for all of them. Why? Because even when everyone’s awful they’re extraordinarily developed–everyone had a role and they were sticking to it. The whole cast was amazing at giving life to these characters and I was living for all of them, even when I hated them for being horrible people. Especially the teenage/adult version of Brian, Michael Qeliqi.

The storyline isn’t at all fresh, though, borrowing far too much from films like Halloween, The Omen, and even 1993’s The Good Son. When ideas seem as recycled as these you’d at least think everything would fit into place and make an easy plot, right? Well, you’d be wrong. The story is fast-paced (which I’m thankful for), but it’s also so scrambled I’m not sure if time flew by deciphering character motives or if my brain was just dulling itself looking for reason. There’s so much blame on the actions of others it doesn’t even make sense when Brian plays a victim if he does something he knows is wrong. Considering he’s twice been locked in a hospital for conduct issues and is being worked by therapists to make him understand what’s good and what’s not in the standards of society, it seems dumb to play this role considering the character is smart.

Killer Therapy has a scrambled and soft story that leads nowhere (just like Bryan’s murder spree), but it is firm on characters. Horror fans may find it satisfying to see some cult classic & recent familiar faces from, but they’ll realize even a familiar face can’t save you from your faith. Just ask Brian’s mom. And yes, that’s probably a spoiler.

7 OUT OF 10 THERAPISTS APPROVE