The Clovehitch Killer

This was a good movie with excellent acting. Dylan McDermott (unrecognizable in looks, voice and mannerisms) played the complicated role of Don beautifully.

This was a good movie, but not an easy watch. To avoid any spoiler I am just going to point out the fact that this movie puts you deeply in questioning, in a kind of disturbing way. And that's good. It's not your typical serial killer story here, really it's more like " how would you sort out this high level of sickness... because even as a watcher, well you witnessed it and have to live with it !. This is slow paced, just enough to build this uneasy tension. Thumbs up to the camera work, we get some real artistic framing and lightning here. And also, most importantly, let applause the fantastic acting of the father and son characters. You'll find yourself diving in this with them after just a few minutes. A solid 8 for me. Warning : You may need a drink after this.

Years after a notorious serial killer of teenage girls stops, loving son (Charlie Plummer) finds evidence to suggest his father (Dylan McDermott) may have been responsible. Slowly, with the help of new girlfriend (Madisen Beaty) whose mother was killed by the the eponymous villain, the evidence begins to mount up.

Slow-burn thriller that nicely highlights the macabre contradictions between a perfect loving family in gun toting, American bible belt country with a psychopath killer within. McDermott is terrific as the killer who still feels the right to hold his head high because of his god fearing / family loving ways, despite tying up and strangling young girls. This belief by father and ultimately his son leads nicely to a slightly off kilter, but nonetheless persuasive and enjoyable climax which has tended to be criticised by critics as being too action oriented, but which I thought fitted quite nicely.

I wanted to like "The Clovehitch Killer" more than I did. Many ingredients are there for an interesting movie. I think the direction is the key flaw here. It doesn't take its premise as far as it should have, to really make you feel something. It seems to approach some fairly uncomfortable viewing, but never make good on it.

Dylan McDermott, the centre of the movie, is really its best part. His performance is chilling and confounding. The character of his son and his snooty gal pal don't really do enough. The investigate the titular killer, but you don't see enough of how they really think and feel. Nor is there enough of a look in from the mother character, who, doubtless, would have a lot of pain.

Family, in most cases, is a web of secrets and lies. This movie could have been about more than a killer who's also a family man. It could have been painfully relatable. It just isn't.

I started watching figuring I had it all figured out in the first half hour. It seemed painfully predictable. Well, it wasn't. I think most people will find it worth watching. Just be patient.