A simmering disagreement over who deserves credit for the screenplay of Neil LaBute's crime drama "Murderous" has spilled into public view, with a newly released clip from the film sharpening the dispute rather than settling it. The footage, debuted exclusively this week, shows a tense confrontation between two of the film's young characters, but it is the argument happening off screen - over authorship of the script - that has drawn the most attention in recent days. The film itself, a Spanish-language Hollywood production running 120 minutes, was released on March 22, 2018, under the direction of Ricardo Tavera.
A Four-Part Story of Children and Crime
"Murderous" weaves together four separate narrative threads, all centered on criminal children. One strand follows two teenagers trapped inside a world saturated with drugs and human trafficking. A second tracks another pair of kids who push their loved ones to the breaking point. A third involves two resentful children determined to act on their darkest impulses. The fourth focuses on a single child forced to choose between killing and loving. The result is a drama-thriller that moves between these storylines, connected by their shared interest in youthful transgression and the moral edges children are willing to cross.
The ensemble cast includes Uriel Reymund as Carlos, Kay Ciani as Mariano, Israel Jiménez as Miguel, Adrián Escalona as Piolín, Jaime Her Alvídrez as Gato, Andrea Jimalva as Karla, Itzel Mondragón as Lizbeth, and Octavio Vargas as Lobo. The film holds a 7.2 out of 10 rating on TMDb, a respectable score for a modestly scaled genre picture that has found a second life through clips and retrospective discussion long after its initial run.
The Credit Fight and Why It Matters
Disputes over screenwriting credit are hardly novel in Hollywood, but they tend to be conducted quietly, through arbitration and private correspondence, before the public ever hears about them. When one becomes heated - and this one reportedly has - it raises questions about authorship that audiences rarely consider when they sit down to watch a finished film. A screenplay can pass through multiple hands before shooting begins. Writers are hired, replaced, brought back for revisions, and sometimes left off the final credits entirely. The rules governing who gets named are strict and often counterintuitive, which is precisely why these fights turn bitter: the credit is not merely a line of text on a screen, but the foundation of a writer's career, reputation, and future earning power.
Details of the specific disagreement remain contested, and no formal resolution has been announced. What is clear is that the release of the exclusive clip has given the argument fresh oxygen. The scene, viewed in isolation, is a tightly wound piece of storytelling, and it invites the obvious question of whose voice is actually on the page.
A Director Known for Provocation
LaBute's involvement lends the project a particular charge. His body of work has long been associated with provocation, moral discomfort, and characters who behave badly in ways that feel uncomfortably familiar. A film built around criminal children, and the choices that lead them toward violence or away from it, is a natural fit for that sensibility - which may be part of why the credit question has provoked strong reactions. When a filmmaker's signature is so recognizable, attributing the writing becomes both more difficult and more consequential. Readers of the script, and viewers of the film, will inevitably try to trace whose instincts are at work in any given scene.
What the Clip Shows
The exclusive footage centers on a confrontation that captures the film's overall tone: raw, uneasy, and built on the pressure between young people who have run out of good options. It is the kind of scene that plays differently depending on what you know about its creation. Seen simply as performed drama, it works. Seen as the product of a disputed collaboration, it becomes evidence in an argument that neither side appears ready to abandon.
Where Things Stand
For now, "Murderous" continues to circulate as both an object of interest for genre fans and a case study in how credit battles can overshadow the work they concern. The film remains available to audiences who want to judge the four interlocking stories for themselves, and the TMDb rating suggests that at least a portion of viewers have found something worth holding onto in Tavera's direction and the performances of a young cast. Whether the credit dispute will be resolved through formal channels, or simply fade as the next controversy arrives, is an open question. Either way, the fight has already accomplished something the film's marketing never could: it has made people talk about who wrote "Murderous," and about why that question is so hard to answer.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
