Despite being a storytelling staple since before the term was even coined (not to mention sparking several mass panics), real life psychopaths are exceedingly rare. It’s estimated that only about 1% of the population is truly devoid of empathy, and even then, most of them seem content with working jobs where they feel powerful rather than actively seeking out homicide.

And yet, we remain fascinated with the idea of invisible bogeymen living among us during the day and committing terrible acts of murder at night – which is likely why there are so many psycho-focused genre films out there. And with such a huge backlog of (usually psychologically inaccurate) stories about mentally ill killers, it was only a matter of time before clever filmmakers began subverting the tropes that surround our favorite ne’er-do-wells. Among these satirical productions, I think one of the most underrated happens to be Martin McDonagh’s darkly humorous thriller Seven Psychopaths.

An award-winning playwright and filmmaker, McDonagh is no stranger to the clichés that often populate stories about serial killers and hitmen. From early plays like The Lonesome West to classic crime films like In Bruges, the British-Irish director has been incorporating gruesome murder into his stories throughout his entire career. That’s why it’s no surprise that he’d eventually decide to turn these concepts on their heads by exploring why he and his ravenous audience are so fascinated by deranged characters and their bloody exploits in the first place.

Funnily enough, he’d actually complete the screenplay for this meta project long before he directed his debut feature, with the script for Seven Psychopaths actually having been featured on the 2006 Blacklist. However, it was only after achieving mainstream notoriety with In Bruges (not to mention his Academy-Award-Winning short film Six-Shooter) that McDonagh was able to recruit an ensemble meant to flesh out his titular Psychopaths. This star-studded team would include frequent collaborator Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson and the one-and-only Christopher Walken, with the movie finally starting production in 2011.

Premiering in late 2012, the finished film follows alcoholic writer Marty (Farrell) as he struggles to develop a screenplay titled Seven Psychopaths. Meanwhile, his best friend and out-of-work actor Billy (Sam Rockwell) is engaged in a money-making scheme where he and his religious accomplice kidnap dogs and then return them for the reward money. When Billy and Hans kidnap a shih-tzu belonging to ruthless mob boss Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson), reality and fiction collide as Marty unwittingly becomes embroiled in a real-life confrontation between psychotic killers.

SO WHY IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

With seven academy award nominations to his name, McDonagh is certainly no underdog and his films don’t need any defending. However, there is a certain stigma associated with high-profile “cult films” where some genre fans perceive them as being pretentious slogs with little-to-no entertainment value. That’s why I’d like to point out that Seven Psychopaths is just as fun as it is smart, and I think audiences might enjoy the ride even if they don’t usually connect with this kind of production.

It’s possible to deconstruct an idea so much that it breaks, a phenomenon that we’ve seen frequently in popular media as well-intentioned creators attempt to challenge the status quo by denouncing everything that came before. Thankfully, McDonagh seems to have genuine love for the material that he’s satirizing, as the film isn’t content with merely criticizing the idea of exaggerated movie psychopaths. Instead, the script actually explores the flexible morality and hypothetical inner lives that this kind of person would need to have in order to behave like this. And while these characters may not always represent real people, they certainly feel real due to their three-dimensional emotional cores.

From the central plot involving a violent mob boss willing to do anything in order to recover his beloved dog to the budding friendship that develops between deeply troubled men as they retreat to the desert, Seven Psychopaths exists in a middle ground between the hyper-reality of a Tarantino flick and a psychologically realistic character study. Of course, this combination only works because of the humor, with McDonagh flexing his comedy muscles in order to bring us some of the wittiest dialogue of his career (“You think I’m not serious just because I carry a rabbit?”).

As if that wasn’t enough, you also get to see one of the greatest cinematic ensembles of all time mingling in deeply strange situations. I mean, there’s a reason why that infamous scene where Christopher Walken refuses to play along with a gun-toting villain has become such a widespread meme, and do I even need to mention how Rockwell steals the show with his manic performance?

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

From Commando to John Wick, we’ve become so desensitized to homicidal cool guys that we don’t even register them as murderers anymore. That’s exactly what McDonagh is trying to explore here as Marty develops his screenplay and accidentally ends up entering a complicated world where everyone has a different excuse for the horrible things that they do.

Hans’ dark backstory about how he enacted a disturbing and time-consuming revenge on his daughter’s killer deeply contrasts with the melancholy man that we actually meet in the film. I’m also fascinated by the serial-killer-killing duo of Tom Waits and Amanda Warren, with their rampage as they execute infamous real-life monsters like the Texarkana Moonlight Murderer and the Zodiac Killer feeling like a cathartic exercise about empowering the victims who are usually sidelined when these stories are sensationalized by the media.

Many of these situations are depicted in a humorous manner, with certain character deaths and plot points (like the reveal that Billy himself is also a killer) coming off as gags rather than genuinely horrific moments, but Seven Psychopaths always finds a way to catch us off guard with a tender beat here and there as we focus on the victims of a senseless rampage sparked by a single missing pet.

Much like In Bruges, or even his most recent film The Banshees of Inisherin, your enjoyment of Seven Psychopaths will mostly depend on how well you resonate with McDonagh’s particular brand of deadpan humor. In all honesty, I didn’t actually like the film very much the first time I saw it, as I was expecting a comedy thriller with a meta twist rather than a genuinely thoughtful exploration of media with a high body-count. However, after revisiting the film years later with zero expectations, I found myself appreciating the experience as one of McDonagh’s most entertaining movies.

So if you’re up for ironic shoot-outs, thought-provoking vignettes and highly-quotable dialogue, I’d highly recommend checking out the one crime thriller where you actually wish the characters had more time to hang out instead of taking part in climactic stand-offs.

There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.