‘The Voices’ Trailer: Ryan Reynolds’ Pets Tell Him to Kill People

After years of trying and failing to become a franchise-friendly leading man, Ryan Reynolds may have finally found his true calling: starring in pitch black comedies about crazy people who murder women on the order of their pets. At lest that’s the premise of ‘The Voices,’ a deranged little movie that won its fair share of fans on the festival circuit last year. Now that the new trailer has arrived, we can see why: this thing looks nuts.

Written and directed by Marjane Satrapi, ‘The Voices’ finds Reynolds playing Jerry, a likable, innocent goofball who stops taking his meds and transforms into a likable, not-so-innocent murderer. However, in his own mind, Jerry doesn’t have a choice. He’s only brutally murdering women at the behest of his cat, Mr. Whiskers. His dog, Bosco, doesn’t approve, but as every pet owner can attest, cats are prone to treating dogs (and their owners) like doormats.

Reynolds is backed up by Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick, but this looks to be very much his show. Reynolds is a charming and funny guy (traits that are wasted when he gets cast as generic action heroes) and he really looks like he’s cutting loose here, sinking his teeth into a role that is unlike most of the projects that must cross his agent’s desk. Based purely on the trailer, he seems to be playing in similar territory as Christian Bale in ‘American Psycho.’ If he can mine as many laughs from brutal, bloody murders as Bale did, then this is going to be a must-see.

‘The Voices’ arrives in limited release and on VOD on February 6, 2015.