A Date with Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster

On 14 July 2000, in Ventura County, California, the young Connie (Marla Sokoloff) is raped by the Max Factor heir Andrew Luster (Jason Gedrick) after ingesting a drug called Liquid X in a glass of water offered by him in a night-club. With the support of her father, she reluctantly decides to go to the police and tells her snapshots of the occurrence. Connie and the police collects evidences to send Andrew to the jury and during the investigation, two other victims of Andrew, Sarah (Sarah Carter) and Teri (Stefanie von Pfetten), are found and join the accusation. After almost three years, Andrew is sentenced to 124 years in prison for his 86 counts, but he escapes to Mexico, where he is finally arrested by the Mexican authorities and deported to USA on 24 June 2003.

"A Date with Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster" is a great TV movie based on a true story. I liked the way the story is disclosed and the performance of the cast, specially the cynical face of Jason Gedrick, who is perfect in the role of a manipulative sociopath. Although being a made-for-TV movie, this movie has a good screenplay, direction and acting. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Líquido X" ("Liquid X")

This film is based on Max Factor heir, Andrew Luster, a resident of Ventura County and fan of dosing unwary females with GHB (a sometimes lethal anesthesia drug, which has no taste or odor), and then committing serial rape and abuse.

This film falls into a positive LMN category as it is something every young girl should watch along with any mother. It is sometimes incomprehensible to realize what sociopaths are capable of. Until we read the true horrific headlines in the local news, we think it can never happen in our neighborhood, or to us. So untrue. A false sense of security is what sociopaths prey on. Many of the victims here were educated, decent people, who simply fell into a relationship or meeting with the culprit, Andrew Luster. Jason Gedrick is excellent, looks the part; an arrogant, privileged sociopath who laughs at the police detective, saying the police will never jail him: he is a Max Factor heir, he is above the law. (How many times have we seen this attitude in the national news, this year alone.) Lisa Edelstein as State Prosecutor also deserves credit for a good performance. Disgusted by Luster, she makes it her mission to prosecute him for crimes inflicted upon victims Connie, Sara, and Teri. Marla Sokoloff as Connie, and her father (well-portrayed by Robert Wisden) reflect the tragedy and outrage a father and daughter endure together, I can only hope the actual victims received ample family support.

Overall an important true story. Anyone interested in the psychology of sociopaths behavior may also be interested in DTMS/Times Discovery Channel, esteemed forensic psychiatrist Dr. Stone has a show entitled "Absolute Evil" wherein he dissects true crimes by sociopaths and murderers. 8/10.

This incident reminds me of the Alex Kelly case in Ct. Rich boy rapes young girls and finally 3 of them have the courage to come out and accuse him only to him to leave the country while on trial. Both get convicted in absentia. This was a pretty straight forward movie. I found it very scary that the women had no idea they were drugged. Only because the nut taped everything were they able to find out what had happened to them. THere are things that were not explained. Why was the Max Factor heir doing this, what was reason? As I understand he was raised by his mother and she was a regular type of person, who was not into the the rich and famous crowd. Oh well. Another thing is that they never touched on how old he was. This was older guy, hanging out with a bunch of 17 year olds. I am normally not a fan of the the female star, who IMO was part of the downfall of the Practice, but she is very good in this movie. there was a scene in this movie in which one of the women are hesitant to testify because she is afraid he might get away with it. Normally I would not understand her fear, there were tapes of him raping these women. But we are talking about California, a place wherre you can kill Natalie Wood and get way with it. I do feel there is a culture in California that does idolize the rich more then anywhere in this country. So I felt for her.

I also want to know why the Judge seemed so taken with Luster? He seemed very hostile to the Prosecution. Which once again might be California thing, because most places the judge is usually pro prosecution. THe movie was suppose to end before he was caught. But DOG the Bounty Hunter took care of business and found him sunning down in Mexico. Apparently not really acting like he was in hiding. I remember when that happened and the FBI seemed very embarrassed that they did not catch the guy and even had Dog kept in jail. I that would of been a interesting story in itself. This is a good movie to waste a rainy day with. THe performances are all very good and it is a swift moving movie.

"A Date with Darkness" is not entirely what you would call, easy to watch. Some of the scenes in this movie are very explicit.

However, it's not like those explicit scenes would at all ruin the story.

I would give this movie a 10/10

I was a big fan of "The Practice" until recently (due to the cast cuts, including Marla), which is one of the main reasons why I wanted to watch this film - loved Marla's work on the show and her character Lucy. Another reason is just because it looked so good - and it WAS! I'd have to agree with the above poster that states some of the content is explicit, but all in all it was great! The ladies gave wonderful performances. If you missed it, don't worry - Lifetime repeats like crazy. If you get the chance, you should definately sit down and watch. Two thumbs up!