The Alphabet Killer

The Alphabet Killer

source: The Alphabet Killer

This film is a true story and it is not a flashy film which tries to make money by the sufferings of these poor young girls. I cannot stress how much I loathe these paedophiles and rapists. I am a 20 year old guy and if I had any superpowers, I would kill every one of them. If you have read my other reviews, you will know that sometimes I feel very strongly about some issue and burst out like that. I am sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, its just who I am. I was browsing through my friend's DVD collection when I came across this and the cover was very interesting. So, I brought it over a couple of days back to see and the movie was very heart-breaking. A 10-year-old girl, Carla Castillo is found brutally murdered outside the small city of Rochester, New York, and obsessed police detective Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku) suffers a mental breakdown while trying to solve the crime. Megan is diagnosed with adult onset of paranoid schizophrenia and her fianceé breaks of the engagement. The police department is letting the case go into cold storage as there are no leads and the murder seemed to be a dead end. But Megan is convinced that there is a serial killer who goes after children with the same initials. When the child-killings resume two years later, Megan's return to the investigation also brings back her own horrific hallucinations. The only friend she has through all her ordeal is the wheelchair bound Richard Ledge (Timothy Hutton). Even if she can prove a double initial connection to the slayings, will she hang onto her sanity long enough to catch the paedophile psychopath? The director of 'Wrong Turn', Rob Scmidt directs 'The Alphabet Killer'. He is one director who looks very promising. He directs this film with a real reverence to the true events. Eliza Dushku gives her best here as the woman who can see the ghosts of the dead girls. The whole story revolves around her perspective of these killings and sometimes it is very confusing. Is she really schizophrenic or does she actually see those ghosts? Whatever the case maybe, those little girls really suffered from that psycho killer. I really hope that killer is brought to justice soon. The way those little girls are lured into the killer's car is very real. Many of the times, the killer will be a person who you trust. This sick guy doesn't need therapy, he deserves to die for his sins. The ending is chilling with the killer eyeing his next victim. Kenneth Shine, Tom Malloy and Timothy Hutton all give credible performances. This film can be quite traumatizing to below 16 year olds, so the R-rating is definitely deserved (there is also one scene where the beautiful Eliza gets naked, and there is also language and moderate violence, so beware). 7/10

I normally am not a fan of crime movies, especially those based on reality but stretched to the extreme, and the "Alphabet Killer" is no exception. Poor acting, horrible misrepresentation of reality, inaccuracy beyond belief, and camera work that my high school journalist could have topped takes this movie to the bottom. I do, however, enjoy movies that i don't know what's going to happen five minutes into it, and that is where this movie does succeed. I watched "Alphabet Killer" twice; once confused and then once playing the "Alphabet Killer" drinking game. Neither was incredibly enjoyable but compared to most of the films these days it was not repulsive. If you are bored and happen to have a free redbox code its worth the 2 hours for sheer enjoyment of how truly worthless cops are. I know this is one of my less useful reviews but i really don't have much to say about this movie; that's why i watched it twice. It really isn't that bad but at the same time it's not that good. I gave it the benefit of having funny cop hating to get the 6 instead of the 4.

There is not a lot that is original here. After all, the Alphabet killer first made his appearance in 1966 in London, and was sought by none other than Hercule Poirot. This is an up to date version, based loosely on a real killer in America, and with currently hot stars. Rob Schmidt, who directed Wrong Turn, is at the helm, and he brought along Eliza Dushku from that film (also "Tru Calling", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). The rest of the cast is very familiar: Cary Elwes (Saw), Oscar winner Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), Oscar nominee Melissa Leo (Frozen River), and Bill Moseley (Halloween, The Devil's Rejects, Grindhouse). Dushku is a police Lieutenant who has visions and attempts suicide in pursuit of a killer. The movie was fairly interesting because of the actors, but it was ultimately just another police procedural with nothing special to set it apart from and episode of the Ghost Whisperer.

I wish I had something nice to say about this movie. But aside from a few quick shots of Eliza Dushku's *, "Alphabet Killer" is a dull, hunt-the-killer movie. There are no special twists, no special effects, nothing exceptional or outstanding about the movie. The acting is believable enough but it's no testament to the cast's acting abilities; as I said, it's just straight forward, nothing spectacular had to be done by the actors. The plot was simple. There is a killer that has to be found, so go find him! There are no close encounters with the killer in the movie until the end of the movie. There wasn't a character development of the killer's motif. Heck, there wasn't even development of the heroine's "disease." I didn't get scared, excited, upset, or anything in this movie. All throughout, I was just blah. The movie is based on true events so it was factual, but told in an obviously fictional manner so it felt like taking a course in psychology with Ben Stein as your professor. Save your money. Get this at a Red Box. You know what? Don't waste your time. Watch it when it comes on TV...and watch it as the background ambiance while playing World of Warcraft or as your bedtime going-to-sleep movie.

Starts out sorta creepy. Kids dying. Don't really want to see that anywhere, even in a movie. Yet as a parent, it really hits home. My wife who normally falls asleep even in the best of action movies stayed awake thru the entire flick. Mostly because we were both hoping for justice. We got WAY less than that. Not only was the ending a "What the hell?", but we COULD NOT understand or comprehend was the last printed lines in the movie: "A fireman was exhumed in 2006 and cleared of the murders. Nobody has been convicted of the crimes to date." What? There were no firemen in the movie! What happened to the psychiatrist gone bad? You can't expect people to pay money to rent your videos to give them cr@p like this. Never mind paying box office prices. And you wonder why bitemetorrent is as popular as it is. You'll wind up getting a rep for pushing the "artistic license" window, and people will stay away. Far away. Especially producers.

I watched THE ALPHABET KILLER on Showtime last night. It is based on a true-life serial killer case in Rochester, New York. However, I'm not sure if the true events that inspired this thriller included a dogged homicide investigator who pursues a child murderer, despite suffering from schizophrenia. It's an interesting take, though. Eliza Dushku, does an incredible job playing Megan Paige, the detective, whose condition makes her believe she can see the spirits of the victims. I found her character very sympathetic; and, quite believable. Unfortunately, the movie was a bit predictable (even the "twist" seemed obvious to me).

This crime thriller centers on a detective named Megan (Eliza Dushku) who investigates a series of child murders in upstate New York. But Megan suffers from a mental illness, the symptoms of which get worse as she delves deeper into the killings. She hears strange voices and sees "visions" related to the victims. With low light levels and muted colors, combined with creepy background music, the film's first half creates an effective thriller atmosphere. We see the outline of the killer, but never the face. Will Megan solve the murders and overcome her illness, or will the inept police supersede, to botch the case? As viewers, we root for Megan to succeed. Although the script idea originates from a real-life murder case, referred to generally as the "double initial" serial killings, which terrorized upstate New York in the early 1970s, the film's overall plot and main characters are fictional. The story setting is the present, not the 1970s. The scriptwriter created the Megan character out of thin air. And the story's outcome deviates considerably from the outcome of the real-life case. The film's writer wrote a fictional plot, based on a real-life premise. The film's second half fails to convince, largely because of its clichéd plot contrivances. Visuals consist of an annoying widescreen projection and some hokey CGI effects, in the form of "ghosts". But the low lighting contributes tension, as does some clever low-angle camera shots. And the director relies mostly on a hand-held camera, which enhances realism. Overall casting and acting are fine. "The Alphabet Killer" gets off to a great start. But it falters in the second half, owing to fictional plot points that dilute the underlying real-life premise. I would have preferred a narrative that followed the true story, though I understand that the reason for not doing so was budget constraints. By lowering one's expectations, the viewer may find the film worthwhile, either as a fictional thriller or as a character study of a woman fighting her own demons.

I only basically wanted to see the location shots of my crap city, and surely did notice a few! The part that really drove me insane is the use of cell phones and laptops. I noticed the cars were pretty old looking but when the dad of Wanda hands over HER CELL PHONE to the cops for her contacts-- the movie was just dead to me after that. The kid was 12 year old and the year was 1972. Also I wasn't sure about the time frame because I think the killer struck again well before two years after the first girl's death. I know it was only supposed to be "based on" these murders, but if they went to all the trouble of actually filming on location in Rochester, why didn't they go for a little more credibility? It was just meh, but again, fun for the location shots, and Eliza Deshku is always very good in everything.