Caught this on Netflix this past Wednesday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised."THe SUicide Theory" is a gritty, low-budget thriller about a hit- man who comes into contact with man who wants to be killed. Seems like a match made in heaven right? Wrong. I won't go into the plot much further, but to say that the premise is fresh and exciting is, imo, an under-statement.The film is far from perfect. The make-up looks pretty bad on a nice 4k TV, and i can't say that I didn't see nearly every plot twist from a mile away, i did.But the film still delivers. The acting is surprisingly strong. The plot may not be figured-out by everybody either(not that I'm smarter than anybody, the ideas just hit me right at the right time - you know when you catch a plot twist right when it's set-up). Our lead here in particular is great. His melancholy attitude, along with his cold-heartedness, somehow allows his character to develop and change throughout the film. To me it's these changes that add a certain depth to the film. "The Suicide THeory" does have something to say among all this this violence and macabre. It gets deeper and more thought provoking as it goes.I can recommend this flick without question, but go-in knowing that the writing is hit and miss, at times fantastic, at others a little lazy, and the production values pull away from some decent direction. BUt the acting, the premise, and what turns out to be quite a roller- coaster ride, makes-up for just about everything else.I'm not only giving this a passing grade - I'm edging onto the top 25 for 2015(#16 for now, that's 45 movies through the now 88 watchlist - I'd say rt now it's at the projected cut-off) It could hold onto a spot comes next spring, but it will be close. Easily the lowest budget film to make the list so far, and is a shoe-in for my "Jeremy's B Movie Marathon Lists".You might like this if you liked:"Bringing Out The Dead"(better production values but not better movie), Spiral(similarly low-budget and similar in quality), and Shuffle(slightly better, but probably right there with TST as one of my favorite ultra-low-budget films of the last decade.It takes a lot for a film of this stature to earn a 7/10 ranking in my book. Let alone make my top 25. Check this one out.69/100

I watched this via Netflix, 1 minute into I groaned 'Oh no, an Australian movie' - forgetting that I had seen some great ones in my time, but also some horrid disappointments.This movie does not disappoint, plenty of surprises, twists and surprises and then twists and turns again.I was surprised having watched as many movies as I have and having a knack for remembering actors names, that I had not come across the two main actors before.Both were awesome, as was this dark, eventful and interesting story.Well worth a watch.

I saw the first 35 minutes or so of this film while visiting a friend's house; however, I had to leave… I can tell you that those first 35 minutes were so compelling and suspenseful I actually used Google Play for the first time to rent this, as I absolutely had to see the rest. The Suicide Theory did not disappoint – it was worth all of the $3.99 I paid, plus some. The unique plot finds one of our two main characters, Percival (Leon Cain), deeply depressed over his boyfriend's murder. He tries several times to commit suicide but fails, so he hires a ruthless hit-man, Steven Ray (Steve Mouzakis) to do him in but Steve's attempts also fail. The hit-man can't move on until he finishes the job and so the two eventually develop a bond as our hit-man tries to figure out what it will take to kill Percival. Both men will come to realize that nothing about their encounters is by chance. The Suicide Theory, as one might guess, is a dark film as it deals with a subject that is taboo. However, the plot is very original and although it deals with serious material, there are surprisingly some very funny instances throughout the film. You wouldn't think you'd laugh at a guy trying to commit suicide or an assassin fudging up the job – but the film was so well written and directed. Michael Kospiah and Dru Brown, director and writer, respectively, did a brilliant job where most other writer/director teams would surely fail. Part of what makes the film work so well is the casting. Cain and Mouzakis were matched perfectly for their roles, and they both work so well together – they practically suck viewers in to their woebegone worlds. You will believe the pain these two feel is real. You will express sympathy for the deep psychological issues both men face as if they are real. This is key to why The Suicide Theory is so good. In the disconnected world of modern cinema – characters are increasingly one-dimensional and cliché, as if writers and directors have no concept of what character development is. Here in The Suicide Theory, it's like back to basic Character Development 101. They get it right. While I cannot say enough good things about this film, there are a few snags that detract from what should have been a perfect 10 rating... First off: our hit-man. Steven commits brazen murders (or attempted murders) right in public. I hardly think he'd be this "well sought-after" contract killer if he were this sloppy and careless in real life. Police would have nabbed this guy a long time ago with his sloppy killings and assaults. Same goes for the bartender that likes to set up gay patrons for violent, ambush-style robberies for which he is an unmasked participant. Only problem with this is he tends to show back up for work at the same bar after committing these crimes! Not too smart or realistic. Also, while the concept for the plot is very original – the main twists can be seen a mile away. I figured most of it out long before things were revealed, although there is a The Sixth Sense type twist thrown in there that I absolutely did not see coming. I also thought the dialogue got muddled down in a few spots here and there, but overall the actors kept things engaging enough that these flaws were "almost" a non-factor. Go rent the movie, you will not be disappointed.

No doubt the film could use some cleaning around the edges. The film has some truly great writing sprinkled in with some kind of average writing, which makes the whole thing sort of frustrating. But really, it's pretty good. The two leads are really fantastic and they have a lot of chemistry, which would have been the biggest hindering factor if they didn't. They make the film work as well as it does. Mostly, it's just really well-made technically for being an independent film. I really wish that more people find out about it because it deserves to be seen by more people, and I look forward to seeing what the director/writer does in the future. Definitely recommended.