What Happens in The Columnist?
The complete story of The Columnist, from the first scene to the last, in 223 words (about 1 minute). Spoilers throughout.
Spoilers ahead
Femke Boot is a depressed newspaper columnist who is dealing with pressure from her publisher to complete her book and a seemingly endless stream of online harassers. Discovering that her noisy, obnoxious neighbor is one of her harassers causes her to murder him and take one of his fingers as a trophy. This seems to lift her spirits enough to begin writing as well as take up a romance with a novelist named Steven.
As she continues to track down and murder her online abusers, Femke’s frequent absences begin to take a toll on her relationships with Steven and her daughter Anna. Steven believes she is cheating on them while Anna is angry over her mother missing an important presentation.
Femke eventually tracks down the ringleader of the online bullying, Tarik, to his home. She shoots the one she believes to be Tarik, only to discover that she actually shot his father and that Tarik is a teenage boy. Meanwhile Anna and Steven have realized that Femke is a serial killer. He goes to stop her, only to startle her into shooting the boy dead. After a confrontation, Femke chooses to kill Steven and attend her book launch party. She does not change out of her bloody clothes, however the attendees all assume that she is making an artistic statement and applaud her.
