With its staggeringly demented turn by Matthew McConaughey and the dark eye of William Friendkin, Killer Joe is a twisted Texan tale where black humour and brutal violence sit comfortably side by side.

There is something about the Texas of movie-land that offers itself as a macabre playground where dark souls, trashy women and mutant killers roam free. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre still remains the highlight of such novelty and Killer Joe waves the beer soaked, crispy chicken coated flag high.

Directing Killer Joe is William Friedkin. At the ripe age of 77 he still has a knack for pushing boundaries and delving into the dark recesses of the human soul as he did in cop thriller The French Connection,  horror classic The Exorcist and the underrated To Live & Die in L.A. In playwright Tracy Letts (who wrote the source material and screenplay) Friedkin seems to have found a fellow spirit, with the two previously collaboration on the 2007 psychological thriller Bug.

A Texan trailer park is where Killer Joe opens. We are introduced to Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) a drug dealer in deep for 6 grand to a local crime kingpin. With his two beers shy of a sick pack father (Thomas Haden Church) and feisty step-mother (Gina Gerson, who makes quite the introduction) Chris conspires to kill his immensely disliked mother and cash in her life insurance policy.

Enter Joe Cotton aka “Killer Joe” (Matthew McConaughey), a detective in the Dallas Police Department who runs a side business as a hitman to feed his dark urges.

It is a role of considerable risk for McConaughey. Despite an exceptional early career which saw comparisons to Paul Newman, the Texan native has made his money from countless rom-coms not worthy of his talent. Yet instead of being a career killer, Killer Joe marks a career resurrection for McConaughey who takes on the role of this cowboy hat wearing, dark clothe clad demon with a measure of calculated cool and simmering sexual violence, speaking Lett’s hypnotically framed dialogue with precision.

Killer Joe’s other actors also reply in kind. Hirsch (so vastly underutilised after Into the Wild) is great as the quintessential fuck up, Haden Church’s droll demeanour perfectly suits his characters laid back aloof manner, and then there’s Juno Temple as the youngest of this twisted clan: innocent, quirky, sexual and without remorse.

That this cast deliver some of their best work should not be a surprise. Friedkin is notorious for pushing his actors into fearless (and in some cases depraved) territory. A scene between McConaughey, Gershon and a friend chicken leg will test the boundaries of some and will make many not be able to look at KFC in the same way again.

But for every moment of grotesque violence there are several beautifully directed, well written and fearlessly acted moments that counter. Killer Joe is a trashy and at times shocking Texan tale to be sure, but one that’s worth watching.