80 minutes – Horror
Language: English
Festival release date: September 19, 2019 (Fantastic Fest)
Release date: July 31, 2020 (Online, Digital)
Production company: Elevation Pictures, Manis Film, (in association with) Kickstart Productions
Canadian distributor: Elevation Pictures
U.S. distributor: Shudder (August 20, 2020, Online)

Comic book creator Todd Walkley (Jesse Williams), his wife Kathy (Jordanna Brewster), assistant Aurora (Niamh Wilson) and best friend, Hard Calibre Comics owner Ezra (Jay Baruchel), set out on a press tour to announce the launch of their final issue of a comic book based on a real-life serial killer called Slasherman. They visit the town where Slasherman wreaked havoc twenty years earlier. Upon their arrival, a series of new murders unfold… murders that look eerily familiar to imagery in Todd’s Slasherman comics. It soon becomes clear that a crazed fan is using Todd’s Slasherman as inspiration for the killings and as the bodies pile up, and Todd’s friends and family become victims themselves, Todd will be forced to take artistic responsibility.

Adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, Random Acts of Violence is directed and co-written by Jay Baruchel. It explores the idea of legitimizing cruelty, and the fact that monsters are not merely monsters, they are broken people. Stretching from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, it holds a mirror up to art, society and violence.