Customer Reviews

The Alphabet Killer [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'll admit, I have a morbid fascination with serial killer movies. They harness a raw energy that is almost overwhelming. There is often a strange connection with the victims, the detectives, and sometimes even the killers themselves(or is it just me?). Plus there is a stark fear generated by recognizing a pattern and watching people struggle to prevent further mayhem.

THE ALPHABET KILLER is a pretty well-crafted, fictional tale. It's derived from some unsolved murders that took place in Rochester, NY, during the early 70's. A few young girls with matching initials would turn up dead in nearby towns that were spelled with the same first letter (i.e. Carla Castille in Churchville, Wendy Walsh in Webster).

A female detective(Eliza Dushku) is on the case, and she quickly becomes obsessed with cracking it. Actually, she's the one that starts to crack. She gets completely consumed, the mystery eats at her mind as she starts talking to herself and hallucinating (same thing happens to me when I watch reality TV shows).

Anyway, the movie takes a pretty dramatic shift early on when this woman loses control and attempts suicide. She is diagnosed with scizophrenia and admitted to a mental hospital.

Several times throughout this movie, we're shown the visions that this crazy woman sees--ghastly dead children that constantly haunt her. This is done for shocking effect, but I thought it was completely overdone. Kinda seemed like a ripoff of a Japanese ghost story film.

The story then proceeds as the police are completely baffled by the subsequent Alphabet murders. The mentally unfit cop is put back on the case, possibly due to her past romantic relationship with the chief. And of course, crazy is not something you can just sell on amazon.com.

Director Rob Schmidt does a decent job at mounting suspense. This film attempts to be dark, but doesn't completely succeed. It is interesting as a psychological descent into madness. I thought the cast did a very solid job. This has no gore or reenactment of the murders themselves, so some might get bored. Worth a rental.

The reason I bought the movie was because it has a buff scene of Eliza Dushku, what I got was a surprisingly good thriller. Not the best movie I have ever scene, not in the top 50, but it was entertaining, the acting was good, and it was suspenseful, defiantly worth a look.

The real Alphabet Killer story would be a great subject for a film, but this version immediately drives off reality road into fantasy land and eventually ends in BS-ville. It's the type of movie you wonder why they even bothered to base on a real event. Clearly the writer had somewhere else they wanted to go. Why didn't they just go there without the "based on true events" tag. Not worth the time it takes to watch it. Even though Eliza Dushku is trying really hard to act her way out of this bad movie, her efforts fail.

I have been a big fan of Eliza Dushku since I saw her in "Bring it On!" I also like her character in TV series "Tru Calling." She was in "Wrong Turn," which is not surely the greatest horror movie, but still worth watching. That is why I am interested in "The Alphabet Killer" directed by Rob Schmidt, who is also the director of "Wrong Turn." Moreover, this serial killer suspense is, the film claims, "based on the truth."

In fact, "The Alphabet Killer" is very loosely based on the "Alphabet Murders" that took place in Rochester, in the 1970s, but the film's script focuses a police detective Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku) investigating a brutal murder of young girl Carla Castillo (victims' names are changed). Megan is an able police officer and her fellow detectives (including her boyfriend Kenneth played by Cary Elwes) know that, but she becomes too obsessed with the case. She starts seeing things and hearing voices, but is this because she is "delusional"? Or is it because of some supernatural power she alone can feel?

Two years later, after medical treatment, Megan is back in the police department. Then a dead body of a girl is found. The killer is still on the loose.

The story intrigued me at first, but about 30 or 40 minutes in, I started to lose interest. The acting is very good. The grayish-colored photography captures the bleak atmosphere. But the film doesn't tell us much about the cases or weird things Megan sees or hears. Eliza Dushku does her best, but her character and pains doesn't convince because we are not given the detailed account of the murder cases, not even the hypothetic theories. In fact, the character of Megan aside, the storyline is pretty conventional.

A detective story with an emotionally unstable heroine is not a bad idea. The problem here is that her "delusions" have little to do with the way the film resolves its rather predictable whodunit part. It is a pity that the cast and the subject matter deserve a better story like, say, "Zodiac."

The Alphabet Killer was a pretty good movie. The acting was good and the story was good although all the information wasn't accurate.

I wanted to see this movie because of the cast and because it was based on true events. This was a great movie to watch one time but I don't think I could watch it again. It didn't have quite enough mystery or action for me to want to watch it again.

Storyline: A serial killer starts killing little children so it is up to the detectives and police force to try to figure out who it is. At first no one believes that there is a serial killer on the loose and they all think Megan (Eliza Dushku) is getting too attached to the case and they think she is over processing the case. The detectives cannot solve the case so they let it go much to Megan's dismay. Megan starts getting haunted by the first little victim to the point she tries to commit suicide so she has to get mental help. During that time more victims are killed so Megan begs the police force until they let her back on the case of the Alphabet Killer. Rent the movie to find out if Megan can solve who the Alphabet Killer killer is.

If you like CSI I think you'll like this movie but again I'm not sure it you will want to watch it over and over again because it's kind of a simple movie.

I recommend renting this movie to see if it'll be one that you'll want to watch over again.

Well, it's hard for me to give a movie more than three stars if I can figure out the ending (right down to the smallest detail) mid way through. This movie wanted to be good, it really did. It wanted to hang with the likes of se7en and Silence of the Lambs (given that's a really big "want"), but in the end this movie will dwindle into renter's obscurity.

The director, Rob Schmidt, does manage a few intriguing moments coupled with a touch of suspense, but if you really pay attention you'll solve this riddle with ease.

On a side note, I still can't take Cary Elwes seriously. He was great in movies like "Robinhood: Men in Tights" and the classic "The Princess Bride", but movies like Saw left me laughing hysterically when I should have been cringing with fear and angst (the desperate reaching for the phone scene still makes me laugh). Albeit his performance here was much better than Saw, I still struggle with him in serious roles. As for Timothy Hutton and Eliza Dushku, both are strong actors and did the best they could with what they were given.

In the end I'm rating this film 3 stars (would have been 2.5 had it not followed an even worse film--HORSEMAN staring Dennis Quaid. More to follow on that travesty!)

This psychological crime thriller reminds us of the adage - a person can be crazy but not stupid. A detective has a psychological problem that is intensified with stress. She sees and hears things that do not exist. She is working on a case where a young girl is rapped, strangled, and murdered. She becomes obsessed with finding the killer and when, after months of work, she fails to find any results she tries to kill herself. She is hospitalized in a mental institution for two years. When she is released the police department rehires her, but only as a file clerk. She discovers that the killings have begun again after a two year stoppage. Where was the killer during the two years? She persuades the captain to let her tag along with the detectives. She becomes overly stressed again, but does discover who the killer is. But as she makes this discovery, she again loses her mind. What will happen next? Will the killings continue? Will she be able to recover and identify the murderer? The film is filled with suspense and the acting is very good.

The Alphabet Killer is a pretty standard serial killer flick that manages to stay compelling enough to keep you interested despite its flaws. Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse) stars as Megan, a schizophrenic detective assigned to the murder of a young girl, which soon enough sets her down the path of a meltdown. Two years later, the killer strikes again and Megan is back on the scene, haunted by the apparitions of the victims all along the way. From a director like Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn, Masters of Horror: Right to Die), you'd expect The Alphabet Killer to be a grisly, bloody opus; but the film instead focuses more on Megan's story and her quest. This actually works towards the benefit of the film, even though Dushku's wooden acting more often than not drags things down a bit. That aside, The Alphabet Killer is pretty compelling and offers one or two genuine surprises, and features genre stalwarts like Cary Elwes, Michael Ironside, Timothy Hutton, Tom Noonan, and Bill Moseley, as well as smaller roles for Martin Donovan, Carl Lumbly, and recent Oscar nominee Melissa Leo. All in all, while nothing special in the least, The Alphabet Killer is worth seeing for fans of the genre, and its bleak denouement manages to set it slightly above the rest of the pack.

The Alphabet Killer is a pretty standard serial killer flick that manages to stay compelling enough to keep you interested despite its flaws. Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse) stars as Megan, a schizophrenic detective assigned to the murder of a young girl, which soon enough sets her down the path of a meltdown. Two years later, the killer strikes again and Megan is back on the scene, haunted by the apparitions of the victims all along the way. From a director like Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn, Masters of Horror: Right to Die), you'd expect The Alphabet Killer to be a grisly, bloody opus; but the film instead focuses more on Megan's story and her quest. This actually works towards the benefit of the film, even though Dushku's wooden acting more often than not drags things down a bit. That aside, The Alphabet Killer is pretty compelling and offers one or two genuine surprises, and features genre stalwarts like Cary Elwes, Michael Ironside, Timothy Hutton, Tom Noonan, and Bill Moseley, as well as smaller roles for Martin Donovan, Carl Lumbly, and recent Oscar nominee Melissa Leo. All in all, while nothing special in the least, The Alphabet Killer is worth seeing for fans of the genre, and its bleak denouement manages to set it slightly above the rest of the pack.

THE ALPHABET KILLER makes its way to DVD with a limited run elsewhere. After witnessing some of the things that DID make their way to the hallowed halls of the cineplex, it makes you wonder why they chose those movies over this one, a not too bad thriller.

I'm always wary of movies based on true stories such as this. There is no way to tell how much of it is true and how much of it is placed out for those of us to watch by someone using "creative license". Let's hope that most of it is true and that parts of it are WAY off.

Eliza Dushku plays detective Meagan Paige, a dedicated officer who strives to solve all crimes that come her way. When she gets involved in the murder of a young girl, she becomes obsessed with the case. So much so that she begins seeing the dead girl trying to communicate with her. Her involvement reaches such a state that she has a mental breakdown and is taken away.

Two years later, Megan has been released and is back on the job. Her ex-husband (Cary Elwes) who was her partner is now her boss. Given token assignments, Megan strives to live a normal life. But the murder of another young girl with clues similar to the one that tormented her brings her back full circle. She wants this case and she wants this killer.

As she begins to research the new case on her own, she begins to see the victims of both cases. They haunt her as she sifts through clues and interviews. All the while, she stays involved with a support group that deals with loss while slowly weaning herself off of the medications she is supposed to be taking.

Megan fills her every waking hour searching for the murderer. Clues take her and her new partner to several leads. But nothing concrete forms and her struggle keeps building. A solution is always just out of reach but as we view the movie we have to wonder, is what we are seeing real or the delusions in Megan's mind?

The killer is identified by the end of the film. So rest assured that there actually is one. At least I think he was actually there. Decide for yourself in this so so thriller that does a decent job of entertaining.

I've always enjoyed Dushku as an actress and feel she has been underused. But in this one her performance makes her abilities seem limited. I for one don't think that's the case but you couldn't tell that here. Then again perhaps it was the script, the direction, half a dozen other things. Only time will tell.

While it may seem that there is little to say here about the film, the fact is that there actually is little to say. It felt short but filled out, never matching other crime solving films made in the past. It offers very little in the way of something new with the exception of ghosts providing Megan clues, thus the part that makes you wonder how much is true.

All involved seem to do their best with the source material. And sure, the movie is better than watching some of the drek that is offered these days. But as for being a movie to run out and rent as soon as possible? Better to hold off for a rainy day.