The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story

I really wanted to like this. I've read a lot about the BTK case. I am a huge Teri Hatcher fan but I found the plot to be very confusing. When she starts receiving the letters, she doesn't report it. When she is abducted the first time at lunch, she has pepper spray in her purse. The second time she is abducted, she is shopping in the dark, in a deserted parking lot, and she actually takes the time to put things in the trunk. I can see and understand no endangered woman acting like this. Either there is something off with this movie or there's something off with the story. I realize that female awareness has sadly increased over time, but I did not understand her behavior.

I really wanted to like this movie but actors apart from main actress were awful, especially the one who was her husband. Wooden acting, just horrible.

Must be something wrong with writing itself also, as dialogs were so not realistic. It's such a shame because I thought that Terri was excelled and really did a good job.

Just shows you that sometimes even best actor can carry the whole cast to make movie watchable.

It had a lot of potential because it's interesting story, but just didn't live up to expectations.

I really wanted to like it as I said - hope next movie with Terri will be much better.

Awful film. Story could have been so much better based upon the subject matter. Acting poor and shouldn't have been but maybe the script was even worse. You can have a low budget film with great acting. It was so bad I started to enjoy it. Hence the 2 star not 1. 1 jump scare and acting that was so deadpan when you would have been clawing up the walls in reality, it made us all laugh. What a waste of money for all involved. Surely the actors could tell how bad it was and would have requested it being put to sleep rather than going out to the world. Definitely a possibility of an award for worst film of the year.

Strong ending brought this one to a seven. Riveting true story, extremely sad.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

It's 1977. The BTK Killer has been hounding Wichita, Kansas for the last 3 years. Everyone is on edge and Ruth Finley (Teri Hatcher) is no different. Her husband gets hospitalized. While alone at home, Ruth receives a threatening phone call. The caller knows about her scaring kidnapping as a teen. She starts getting stalked. The police suspects the BTK Killer who tends to stalk his victims in this manner.

I really only know the nickname BTK Killer. I don't know anything about Ruth Finley. The first half is your every other Lifetime woman-in-danger movie. Once the reveal happens, the story is less compelling as the woman-in-danger genre. Maybe this should be done in a different way. There is a surreal element that could be exploited.