Gacy

Having a low budget doesn't always mean having a bad movie, but in this case it does. While other directors use their minimal budget to produce the best film they can, Clive Saunders seems to have blown it all on something, because this film looks like it could have easily been made on $1,000. I found it to be dull, poorly written/acted/directed, and an insult to the intelligence of viewers who have actually done the research on Gacy that these film makers neglected to do.

The setting is horrible. The movie is supposed to be taking place in Chicago, but the Southern California architecture, mountains and palm trees make it clear that the production never left Los Angeles. The film is supposed to take place in the seventies, but it doesn't give off the authentic feel at all. The script gives one the feeling that it was a first draft whipped up in one weekend and put to film without so much as one editing session. The dialogue is weak and unbelievable in many scenes, and there seemed no basic plot whatsoever. With directing, editing and shoddy camera work such as appears in this film, these people should be banned from ever making films again. Seriously, I could do better with a bunch of friends and a camcorder.

Now, I want to start right off by saying that I did not go into this hoping for blood and guts and gore...what I wanted was to learn a little background on the man himself. Although I love those aspects of horror films, I wanted more of a psychological view of Gacy, and that is what the film failed to deliver. All it managed to do was show scenes of bugs in his crawl space, him going to and from work, him being harassed and beaten up for the money he owes, and the overwhelming emphasis placed on the stench of the decomposing bodies hidden under the house.

Worst of all, Gacy is portrayed as somewhat of a bumbling idiot rather than the scarily intelligent being he was. All of the deaths that are shown seem to have been committed on accident - such as the boy he was drowning in the bathtub when he was interrupted. When the boy fell down dead, he looked like he'd "made a boo-boo."- Not to mention the fact that he would leave dead bodies lying around the house and his roommates wouldn't take any notice. I realize that some people don't make it their business to report suspicious crimes or get involved, but that is just ridiculous.

Yes, I will admit that I wanted at least one scene of brutal violence from the film, but only for it to give me a full perspective of Gacy's crimes. I wanted a true story that did the story of the killer justice as well as creep me out, but instead I received this boring mess. Don't do like I did. Spare your intelligence and read up on Gacy instead, I guarantee you that what you read will entertain and scare you more than this film ever could.

Based on true story, this film focuses on the life of serial killer John Wayne Gacy (Mark Holton). He was a model citizen, a successful businessman, a family man and occasional clown for children at a hospital, until something motivated him to sodomize and murder thirty young boys and dispose of them in the crawlspace underneath his house.

Despite Holton's decent performance as the infamous serial killer, dull writing, directing and pacing sinks this boring film. More detail on Gacy would've helped, but instead we get obligatory shots of maggots over dead bodies. Gross! If you really want to learn about serial killers like Gacy read about it on the Internet or check out a book at the library; you'll be much better off.

My evaluation: NO STARS

The filmmakers do state up front in their opening text that "Gacy" is a fictionalization of certain events in the serial killer's life, and not really intended as a full blown biography, but one can't help but feel that more detail would have been appreciated. We only get a brief prologue showing us Gacy's relationship with his tough guy father (Adam Baldwin) and how that affected him before fast forwarding dramatically to a point in his life where he was living with a wife and two (step) daughters after having served some time in prison for sodomizing a boy. That event is only referenced in text, and we don't learn anything about his prison time, or much about his life aside from his misdeeds. With a little more "meat" to it, this movie could have been quite good; as it is, it still achieves the goal of being genuinely creepy and disgusting, perfectly fitting for any story about a serial killer. After what could be perceived as something of a slow start, co-writer / director Clive Saunders shows us basically the lurid details of Gacy's life, and just touching lightly upon the public image he had of being an upstanding citizen. It would be hard not to be affected by the sight of so many cockroaches and maggots as the crawlspace underneath Gacy's suburban Chicago house has seen over two dozen victims buried there. (This leads to some amusing very dark humour as Gacy is forced to deal with the problem, including the use of lime and the hiring of an exterminator (played by comedy veteran Larry Hankin, in a great cameo).) It would also be impossible not to be deeply disturbed seeing Gacy in action as he either coddles, spies on, or molests, his victims. Actor Mark Holton does a fine job, despite not having a lot to work with. Other performers in this movie such as Tom Waldman, Charlie Weber, Allison Lange, Edith Jefferson, Joleen Lutz, Rick Dean, Glenn Morshower, Dan Bell, and John Laughlin all contribute solidly, but it's Holton's sufficiently scummy portrayal, along with the pervasive seedy atmosphere that Saunders and company create, that keeps this movie moving along efficiently to its conclusion. Six out of 10.

I was pretty disappointed with this one. The primary reason this film was even remotely disturbing was due to the fact it was based on a true story. The direction and acting was quite terrible. Really, really bad. Thankfully, the bad acting is so much so that it turns from bad to kind of funny. I haven't seen the other film based on the same situation, but can't image it to be much worse than this. It's worth seeing for the sake of it being an interesting true story...well, that and John Gacy is played by none other than Mark Holton (Francis from Pee Wee's Big Adventure). Somehow, the relation between the two films makes them both that much scarier.

"Gacy" is a great example of a film that tries to do way too much and tries way too hard to do it. We are treated to a very vague portrait of a man who was an historically vicious serial killer. Along the way there are attempts at comedy that do not work at all, too many victims that look too much like actors, and a lot of nonsense that couldn't have happened and never really did happen.

Keep in mind that the movie was penned by a screenwriter, it is not any kind of J.W. Gacy biography. If you view it with this in mind, I suppose it could be mildly entertaining, but if seen through intelligent eyes, it stands out as an exploitative, ridiculous and overly ambitious serial killer thriller film that romps through way too much unnecessary filler material.

Not scary, not funny, not realistic. Not recommended.

3 out of 10, kids.