| “ | Jessica Shepard: You killed them all. John Mills: They were scum. Don't you understand, darling? They weren't good enough for you and her. You have the same emotional problem. You have her disease. I've tried to cure you. Jessica Shepard: You cured my mother by killing her? John Mills: She was ruining my life. She was ruining her life and your father's life. I loved her. I couldn't let her keep doing those things. There was no other way. Jessica Shepard: You killed my father. You couldn't stop killing. John Mills: Stop? I stopped for all those years, and I can stop again. Control, Jess. It's all about control. Give me the gun. I kill you, I kill a fleeing felon. You kill me, you commit murder. |
„ |
| ~ John Mills explaining his motives to Jessica Shepard. |
Samuel was a motherfucking serial killer in the same year he voiced a nasty cop. Oh, the irony!
What's the Work?[]
Twisted is a frankly bad 2004 psychological thriller movie directed by Philip Kaufman, the same one who made the extraordinary 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Starring Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia, it centers on a recently promoted inspector named Jessica Shepard, who’s caretaker is her father’s old collaborator named John Mills. Jessica befriends fellow teammate Mike Delmarco. Then, a streak of gruesome killings start to occur involving Jessica’s former lovers and she begins to question herself as the killer. As she tries to clear her name when she gets listed as the prime suspect, things slowly start coming together and a much more haunting answer begins to appear.
Who is John Mills and What Has He Done?[]
John Mills is a seemingly kind and trustworthy officer working for the San Francisco Police Department and also happens to be a woman-hating sadist with a vindictive streak. Mills hooked up with his partner’s wife but was angered when she got along with “hippie scum”. He first told his partner which made him lapse towards a downwards spiral. Mills himself decided to hunted down the rest of the wife’s suitors and murdered them all, before concluding in the midst of their squabble, that he had to dispose of them too, having his partner shot in the face. Mills succeeded and convinced people that he stole his wife’s life and killed himself afterwards.
Mills laid low for years while seizing their baby Jessica as his own daughter. When she becomes a young adult, Mills appears at the grand party, when he warns Jessica not to get herself in trouble but nevertheless congratulating her and reminding her how proud he is to have treated her well. Mills later has a dinner with Jessica about her earlier incident when she was nearly raped by infamous criminal Edmund Cutler and to come up with a good enough story to convict him before reminding her that everything will be okay. Mills learns that Jessica is currently trying to find boyfriends to have sex with, so he replicates his spree. Battering Bob Sherman, who Jessica first saw in a bar, and burning his right hand with his cigarette, he dumps his corpse within a bedding of rock. He next pounds Lawrence Geber with the same weapon and leaves his body in a river with the same mark on his hand. Unfortunately, Mills left a drop of blood on the ear and the forensics lab collects it and will later determine who the culprit is.
Jessica visits Mills to question him regarding what really happened to his parents. Mills however simply tells her that they loved each other very much and that he (seemingly) regrets telling him about her involvements regarding other males. The next day, Mills orders Lieutenant Tong not to call her off from the case when he considers the situation. Mills quickly demonstrates however that he isn’t saving her and that she needs to be more cautious regarding her social life and her career, even making a casual quip that him not being concerned is why people are dying around her. Mills casually manipulates Jessica and her colleague Mike throughout, attempting to turn them against each other and making Jessica paranoid, believing that she herself is the serial killer because she coincidentally drinks wine and sleep and then then the victims start to pile up when she awakens and that she can get into violent outbursts at times.
Mills then gets Raymond “Ray” Porter’s address and offs him before tossing it into the hot tub. Mills once again shuts down Wong’s request to take her off because it’ll destroy her career and that he’s confident that she’ll come to her senses. Mills eventually asks Jessica to see him and tests her regarding crime photos. When she gets it incorrect, he says that she’s falling to pieces and that she needs to pull herself together. Mills then offs Jimmy Schmidt while Jessica is sleeping and places his remains on her bed. Thus Jessica is withheld and interrogated by her doctor Frank, only for Mills to have her released with his own money. Mills explains that she’s innocent and that she was knocked unconscious, claiming that Mike had done it by using evidence like knowing the location of her house and her deep, dark secrets. They storm Mike’s residence and Jessica accuses him, Mike explains his side of the story, only for Mills to pour glasses of wine and declare a toast. Mills has spiked Mike’s drink and is planning to set him up for Mills’ own acts by putting evidence such as the Japanese yawara and drugs.
Jessica stops Mike from reaching his gun and finally realizes the truth when Mills tries to activate his lighter and that he plans to get away with everything. A pissed Jessica demands Mills to put his hands behind his head and get on his knees, and Mills vents his frustrations out before noticing Mike escaping from the door. Mills slaps Jessica in the face and chases after Mike. Mills catches up and burns his hand with a cigarette like with the other victims. Jessica comes in and Mills claims that his victims were “not good enough” for her and her mother, saying that they have a “disease” and that he wants to cure it. Mills proclaims that he’d stopped his behavior before and that he can do it once more. But it was a trick as Mills points his gun at her, order her to give him her gun, and that it can only end with either him or her dead. Jessica manages to expose him to her old pal, Officer Wilson Jefferson via her phone and that likely he’ll be given slack by a judge. Out of spite, Mills “tests” Jessica one final time by finishing off Mike, only to be gunned down by Jessica with enough force to send him off to the sea.
Heinous Standards?[]
Mills isn’t the only villain in the work, as there’s Edmund Cutler having three innocent women ended before him. Unlike Mills, Edmund has his actions be almost completely off-screen with only the rape attempt being displayed, which isn’t vile enough on it’s own. Mills? He not only brutally kills Jessica’s parents (as proven by flashbacks and photographs of the father), but he targets her mother’s affairs all out of racist views, and in the present day proceeds to do the same to Jessica’s simply to prove they don’t deserve her and seeks to get away with it by pinning the blame on Mike after he silences him and also Jessica because she rejected his offer.
Mitigating Factors?[]
Mills seems to deeply appreciate Jessica and encourages her to stick up for herself and even says he’s happy that she’s on a steady path. But it’s all a farce as he has no hesitation with her dying by his hands because he’s petty. He also claims that he did his deeds to protect her and her parents but it’s a thinly veiled excuse to disguise his hateful rhetorics towards hippies and women in general: plus, he’s also a massive hypocrite given he had cheated before with his partner’s wife/Jessica’s own mother so it give him even less of a reason to massacre/slaughter her other partners. So he throughly destroys any redeeming qualities that he may have had at first glance.
Final Verdict?[]
Easy yes to yet another Samuel L. Jackson character.