This dark comedy is the feature directorial debut of Willow Hamilton; a mockumentary about a failed documentary, in director’s commentary format. With me so far? While there are films you can have on at the same time as doing a bit of housework or whatever, Killer Whales isn’t one of them; not only because of the film-within-a-film style (often rather twisty, even with the simplest storyline), but because there’s also a murder whodunnit thrown in for equal measure. And that’s only the beginning.

Due to a housing crisis, homelessness in LA is rife, and decent housing is at a premium. So when groundbreaking yet drug-addled conceptual artist David Hackneyed (Kiel Kennedy) is found murdered in his bath during an open house viewing, everyone who attended is now a potential suspect.

With this in mind, aspiring yet naive filmmaker Donny Wunder (Wyatt Bunce) sets out to make what he’s sure will be a smash hit true crime documentary; infamous Hollywood executive Chelsea Loonves III (Thom Reidy) has agreed to back it. Innocent of the ruthless nature of the beast where both filmmaking and Hollywood are concerned, the enthusiastic and trusting Donny is unaware he’s about to enter a world where the uninitiated are torn up for toilet paper and cast aside just as freely every day.

Loonves, slimy and arrogant, is either bored or nasty enough to take on Donny’s documentary just for fun at his expense to see what’ll happen, and sends nonconformist filmmaker Francis Falconi (Greg Vrotsos) to assist.  Millions in debt following the failure of his last film, Falconi’s choice is take the job or go to prison. Resentful and angry, he leans heavily on the filming with his own Tarantino-esque style, also insisting all the suspects play themselves.

And here we have the real magic of this rather convoluted tale. While the plot itself is a lively one, it’s really all about the characters, each developed to such a brilliant extent that any could be the basis of a decent production on their own. The suspects, not being actors, bring their own individual eccentricities with them, adding to the existing chaos created by Falconi, all this finally leading to Loonves’ swift withdrawal and Donny’s arrest for fraud. A year on, everyone involved has their say about what went wrong with Killer Whales, and Donny’s full story is revealed.

The contrasting worlds of each individual character are what make this truly shine.

Squire (Anthony Carrigan); an overly theatrical ‘Chaucer’s Dungeon’ devotee, spends whole days immersed in the roleplaying game with housemate Baron, complete with candles, stage makeup and ceremonial robes. Father T-Dale (Michael Cognata), ex-Wall Street stockbroker, is now a rollerblading priest living in his car at Taco Bell, next to a guy called Eagle who cashed in everything he owned (including his house) to finance the car he lives in. Disney ‘Dizzy’ Daisy (played by Bunce) is a lore unto her elderly self; mixing dubious cocktails at 10am and later talking about the not-so-mysterious deaths of all three of her husbands; and probably the pick of the bunch is Klara (Kristin Couture), a spirit medium who tripped WAY out on drugs one day and never came back.

If you lose the plot it doesn’t matter; you’ll be too busy loving the character study to care; Killer Whales is an intelligent and subtly hilarious watch.

6.5 out of 10 Demented Documentaries