BTK Killer
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Yeah, sometimes you watch a movie that makes you think odd thoughts. “BTK Killer” was one of those. I imagined that perhaps if real life Serial Killer Dennis Rader realized what a horrid film would be made about his murder exploits, perhaps he would have been so ashamed he might not have killed anyone. Then again, with his beloved “BTK” name meaning Bind, Kill, Torture, he perhaps would have loved the fact that this awful film would torment flick watches long after his sick ass was dead or locked away. Luckily for you, my dear readers, I took one for the team, and the long and short of it is that this movie needs not be watched by anyone.

I knew I was in trouble when I watched the preview for “BTK Killer”, and noticed a complete lack of scenes from the movie. Now, you can get away with this if you are a well known director, but “Ulli Lommel” isn’t exactly what I would call hot poop. Sure, he’s been making horror movies for well over 20 years, but how often do you hear his name (for me, once and that’s now). Sure enough, the reason the movie wasn’t shown on the previews is because it’s bad. Bad acting, horrid writing, a storyline that meanders (and at 80 minutes, that takes an incredible lack of skill), and editing that is below the student level. Much of the film looks like it was filmed on a small stage that they just repainted and moved furniture. Granted the budget was low, but that doesn’t mean much. The great little Sci-Fi film Primer was made for around 10 thousand and it looked great, and was a really solid film. This on the other hand is crap, from the opening scene, to the closing credits, it’s horrible.

This movie is about a real life serial killer. As recent releases have shown us, Serial Killer flicks are a hot commodity. “BTK Killer” takes a look at Dennis Rader, a pretty sick guy who liked to bind his victims, torture them, then kill them, thus BTK. Dennis seems like a normal guy. He is married, has 2 kids, spends time reading The Bible, and going to church (which the film shows us repeatedly). Of course, Dennis is a Serial Killer who craves attention. Back in the 1970’s he killed 10 women by suffocating them, then after they were dead, he would masturbate into his victims’ underwear. Then he stopped, and the case went cold. Like many mentally ill people, Dennis couldn’t stop for ever, so 30 years later, he began killing again.

Luckily, before watching this movie I had seen a television documentary on Dennis Rader, and there is no doubt that he was a sick puppy. Some of you may remember seeing court room footage of him, in detail discussing his murders with a total lack of emotion. It was Creepy, much creepier than this cheap attempt to cash in on tragedy. Lommel, unable to squeeze much intensity into this film, uses gratuitous footage from real slaughter houses. You will see real animals killed, and gutted in this movie. One scene in particular involving a dead cow, after being gutted, having its leg chopped off with a pretty big knife. Is this unsettling, sure, but with the subject manner already being disturbing in its own right this was only attempt to substitute quality film making with easy way to unsettle your audience. Also, in his editing, he loves to do an annoying little trick where he repeats dialogue over and over at a particular point. You know, you want to annoy someone, so you use the A-B function on your DVD remote so one line of dialogue is played over and over until the other person slaps you in your face. Sadly Ulli wasn’t in the room, so I was forced to hear “What’s my Name?” a hundred times without getting any retribution.

So yeah, this isn’t a good movie. You want to see a well done low budget movie about a real life serial killer, check out “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”. It’s unsettling, but well done, something I cannot say about “BTK Killer”. You want to know about Serial Killers, watch an A&E special on them. What every you do, don’t watch this. It’s bad. Hell, the scene on the back cover isn’t even from the movie, what does that tell you. I give this one 1 ½ cans, an extra half for the fact that I must assume Ulli Lommel is mentally handicapped. Someone please give Ulli a cookie so he will put down the damn camera.

Added:  Wednesday, April 12, 2006

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