Review of Gacy (2003) by Jared F — 01 May 2007

Note... it's been awhile since I've seen this movie. But I've seen it twice so... yeah--I'm pretty sure that I'm accurate here. If I'm not... fuck off. This movie did suck and accuracy isn't needed to say that much.

This is a shame. Really. This is an affront to everything that a good serial killer picture should be. And what's worst of all is that they had an awesome story to play off of! One of the most fascinating of all true-life serial killers and they botched it! Terribly, terribly botched.

What such classic serial killer films as Silence of the Lambs and Maniac give us is a connection with the killer--the audience is able to connect with the unbalanced killer. This film gives us no connection though it thinks it does. This is a glorified slasher film cause it has that flashy pseudo-16mm indie film look to it that screams "look at me, I'm edgy and artsy." This film isn't edgy or artsy though. It's just a few killings and an abruptly deranged killer. The whole thing just feels unnatural and abrupt but once he starts killing suddenly the graves start stacking up at a shocking rate. Why?! What causes him to kill?

Another missed opportunity was the end of the film. Gacy's real last words were "Go to hell" if memory serves. That would have been very awesome visually, a man in an electric chair giving one final "fuck you" to the world. I mean... it'd make sense to convey that through visuals, right? I mean film is after all a visual medium.... right? RIGHT?! So why then is it conveyed through title cards? What a grave injustice. What an amateurish mess. Avoid this piece of shit.