“The Exorcist and The French Connection director William Friedkin came roaring back to relevance in 2006 with his tense, jittery film adaptation of the Tracy Letts play Bug; now he's back with a brutal, harrowing, ugly, and darkly funny film version of one of the playwright's first works, a murder-plot chiller set in backwoods Texas. Matthew McConaughey leads the stellar ensemble as a crooked cop/hired killer with a performance of astonishing rage and depravity — he goes to some uncomfortable places here, and you can't take your eyes off him. Killer Joe's NC-17-rated batshit insanity will certainly alienate and enrage some moviegoers, but a certain kind of audience will eat it up with a spoon. (You know who you are.)”