Forest Killer (2024) | REVIEW

Screenwriter Zdeněk Holý and director Radim Špaček chose the case, which attracted a lot of attention at the time, to film the film Lesní vrah. At the same time, they were not interested in showing Kalivod’s crimes and their investigation, but in delving into the psychological state in which he murdered.

And also to try to get at least minimal answers to the question of where an evil so great is born in a person who acts so-called normal that he can kill without having the slightest relationship with his victims.

For the entire seventy-eight minutes, we mainly follow the title character, who was portrayed very well by Michal Balcar. We get to know him when he tries to commit suicide by jumping from the viaduct, but just as he did several times before, he ultimately does not commit to the act and backs off at the last moment. His self-destructive states are impressive, Oleg Mutu’s camera observes in long shots a face that shows despair that no one else can see.

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There is no doubt that this is exactly what the filmmakers intended to show, however, from the audience’s point of view, there is still at least a hint of why he got into such a state. We learn that he served as a policeman but retired from the service, we see him advance in the Quiz for a Million knowledge contest for long minutes (he actually won 320,000 crowns in the Do you want to be a millionaire?), we learn that he bought a gun. But what and why caused his depressive states is not even indicated.

The creator obviously didn’t care. They aimed to show how a person with a serious mental condition functions seemingly normally among other people, without them noticing anything.

However, they do not show the future killer among his relatives or acquaintances (he only briefly meets his mother when he borrows her car keys), who might see something unhealthy in his behavior and face.

But the saleswoman in the store, people in the subway or on the bus could not notice anything, except for the owner of the shooting range, these are generally very fleeting encounters. The film is thus a mere description of a murderer, not an anatomy of the evil that drives a person to kill, even though it has no relation to the victims or an obvious reason for the depressions they suffer from.

It also lacks the overlap contained in the previously declared intention. “We want the viewer to think about himself and try to decipher the seeds of even a little evil within him. So that he knows what to do with it, if he suddenly feels that he cannot overcome him,” Špaček said in one of the interviews.

Unfortunately, the absence of even the slightest trace of when and why Kalivoda began to feel that uncontrollable evil does not lead to such reflection.

As a description of Kalivod’s condition and its consequences, however, Lesní vrah is impressively filmed, despite the very long shots and details, it also has quite a decent amount of tension in places. This is especially so in the scenes in which the future killer with a gun, wrapped only in a newspaper, enters the subway, the bus, in short, anywhere where there are more people.

Although the viewer knows that he will not shoot now, he can feel the tension thanks to the focused shooting of the carefree passengers who have no idea that they are in danger.

When Kalivoda kills cows and people with the same insensitivity, when after the murder he calmly goes to buy and prepare food, which he indulges in with relish, it almost chills a person and he would really like to start looking around carefully.

However, such suspicion means living in fear, which can become paranoid, which is certainly not recommended. And even though the creators probably did not intend it, the film unfortunately reeks of such a “recommendation” in places.

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