KILLER JOE (NC-17) Killer Joe has big teeth. Based on Tracy Letts' play and directed by William Friedkin (the two previously collaborated on the 2006 thriller Bug), the movie dares to provoke from its opening moments. Softheaded Chris (Emile Hirsch) drives over to his daddy Ansel's (Thomas Haden Church) trailer to ask for money. Chris owes a small fortune to some bad people and if he doesn't pony up the dough, he'll be dead by the end of the week. Ansel doesn't greet him at the door. His two-timing wife Sharla (Gina Gershon) does instead, sans panties. Friedkin, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and editor Darrin Navarro linger on Gershon with the prurience of grindhouse moviemakers (something they're not), and the scene is intended as a mildly provocative litmus test, albeit a comedic one. If some full frontal nudity is going to make you squeamish, maybe you ought to leave now before you get hurt.

Chris asks Ansel for the money. He doesn't have it, so Chris gets the "brilliant" idea to hire a hitman named Killer Joe (Matthew McConaughey) to murder his mother, since Chris' emotionally damaged nymphet sister, Dottie (Juno Temple), will get the $50,000 life insurance payout. This being a country noir, things get complicated when the sadistic Joe shows up. Joe doesn't like complications, and when he discovers Chris can't pay him upfront, he takes the innocent Dottie as a retainer. The family agrees to let Joe have his way with Dottie, though Chris regrets the decision, aiming to stop the deal.

Friedkin has long dealt with the evil in humankind (The Exorcist, Sorcerer, Rampage), and here that exploration comes with a two-fisted dose of dark comedy, but one refusing to telegraph punchlines and boldly mixing hard violence and sexual imagery. It's dangerous and thoroughly bracing. Be warned, though, that the characters are thick as bricks, except for Joe, who's always polite and a consummate professional. McConaughey has been redeeming himself of late with a string of fine, offbeat performances. He's horrifyingly depraved here, though always magnetic. Temple is also superb, even though she's nothing more than a plot device for most of it. Nevertheless, when she gains agency at a pivotal moment, it's significant and subtly shifts Killer Joe into a different arena. Killer Joe would be a morbid curiosity at best if not for the performances, its wicked humor or its focus on the moral vacuousness of the modern American family. Thankfully, this is one trip to hell worth