Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not About Gacy, December 17, 2004
Okay, so the one thing I've noticed from previous reviewers is that they were all looking for the same thing from this film: a deeper glimpse inside Gacy. But that concept has been so played in films about serial killers. In fact, it's been played twice--quite adequately, in fact--with respect to Gacy himself.
I think this film attempts to do the reverse. To look at how the community reacts while all these murders are going on right on their doorstep. This movie is different. It's a parody, complete with almost "Texas-Chainsaw" gore for effect, to show how Gacy was able, for years, to rape and kill marginalized young men right under the noses of his "unsuspecting" neighbors. It also has a darkly comic undertone to it. Just watch this movie and think about how many people come and go from his house and how many people complain of the smell, all the while, 29 bodies rotting in the basement. I almost found myself rooting for Gacy against the idiotic neighborhood.
Forget Gacy. This movie is aimed at us, and I think it does a pretty damned good job.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Where are we???, June 5, 2005
I know the John Wayne Gacy story, I live in Chicago, how could I not???
But where are we in this movie? The scenes follow no order and give the audience no clue as to where we are in his life at any given point in the movie. Not only that, but most of the scenes seem to "cut off" too early as if they were edited for TV to fill a time-slot. The whole thing is one big confusing mess.
That being said, the portrayal of Gacy by Mark Houlton was really good. He looks like him physically and pulls off friendly, yet scary appearance very well. He makes this movie worth watching. THe one thing that the writers/directors did well in this was to not get psychological. They simply portray what was actually done, without trying to explain WHY Gacy killed people. He was a serial killer, nobody knows what he was thinking... THe movie succeeded in staying very objective.
Worth watching on a rainy day.
P.S. NOt really much discussed about POGO the clown, even though it's on the cover.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
could've been much better, May 23, 2003
This movie is a virtual candyland of missed opportunities. first, like a lot of serial killer movies, it's structured almost as a series of episodic vignettes, which is okay, but here they don't flow together all that well (here's gacy digging in the crawlspace...now he's wrestling with young boys...now he's cruising the streets, etc). the filmmakers didn't seem to realize that there was an actual straightforward story here. second, and most heinous, is that a lot of what's presented is just flat-out WRONG! Whole chunks of the Gacy story are, for no good reason, left out--chunks that would've made the film much better, such as his back story, his civic & political activitism. the events leading to his arrest are wholly inaccurate, too. (and what was the deal with the two sleazy detectives, anyway? they look like they wandered onto the set from the David Lynch movie shooting on the next lot over.) in the end, Gacy drives away, the bodies are found, we see Gacy in jail, and...the movie ends!! no trial, no outraged neighbors, none of Gacy's bogus "Jack Handley" defense, no gas chamber, nada. In short, they cut out anything that might have made this a dramatically compelling film. A much MUCH better movie about the Gacy case is TO CATCH A KILLER, with Brian Dennehy playing Gacy.
The only reason to see this movie is the amazing performance by Mark Holton as Gacy. i was skeptical going in; I figured I'd be thinking of him as francis from Pee-wee's Big Adventure the whole time, but he actually does a stunning job. why isn't this guy working more anyway?
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