Freeway Killer

William Bonin was a real-life serial killer who murdered a number of young men in the Los Angeles area around 1980. The plot of "Freeway Killer" gives us a character study of this man as an adult already in the process of carrying out his evil schemes.

We see him as he entices young boys into his blue van; gets to know them with general chitchat; then, without warning, strikes, like some wild animal attacking its prey. As Bonin, Scott Anthony Leet gives a really fine, naturalistic performance, with emotions that run the gamut from cheerful normality to blatant hatred. Bonin had at least one accomplice, a young man named Vernon, well played by Dusty Sorg.

The film conveys some gore, though not a lot, mercifully. On the one hand, we do not want a sanitized version of Bonin or his crimes. But we also don't want gratuitous gore and violence that seem to sensationalize people and events. I think "Freeway Killer" strikes a reasonably good balance.

The guys being picked up by Bonin were so similar in age and appearance, they were almost interchangeable. I never did pay much attention to them; they were like stick figures. Any given victim could almost substitute for some other victim, so impersonal and fleeting were their roles in the script.

This is no police procedural; very little time is spent on police investigation. Also, there is no mystery here and very little suspense.

In this low-budget film cinematography is competent. There are lots of close-up shots, with emphasis on peoples' faces, showing their anger, desperation, fear, and deception. Rear-screen projections are noticeable in a few scenes.

Intended mostly for viewers with an interest in true crime, "Freeway Killer" zeroes in on the Bonin character, a madman with the demeanor of a normal guy who liked to mess with the minds of his prospective victims. I rate the film above average for its genre.

The movie itself wasn't so bad. However the storyline could've been fleshed out a little bit more. My pet peeve was that the movie was filled with so many Anochronisms, it threw the story off a bit. This was set around 1979-1980, but it looked very low budget. There were modern cars everywhere, besides the ones used by the actors themselves. The convenience store was riddled with current versions of consumer products, Bonin's alarm clock was digital, etc. Just seems like they didn't make a good effort at setting the theme of the movie to have been in the past. It was shot more like a student film on a shoestring budget.

I don't pretend to be a "reviewer"...so don't expect fancy jargon. What I can say is that I am, and have been, an avid movie go'er for 32 years. I have seen many movies...the good, the bad...and the ugly. This is actually quite good. The acting is good, especially by the main actor playing the role of William Bonin. It's a very simple movie with no attempts to pretend otherwise. There is a cameo of the actor who played "Henry, portrait of a serial killer"...which in my humble opinion is one of the most visceral serial killer movies of all time. If you are looking for a "B" movie feel, but with very good acting this is a good one. No blood and guts. No Hollywood afterbirth here, just a simple, accurate, and well directed movie about the life of a real serial killer, William Bonin. Enjoy.

My brother and the brother of my best friend, was victims of Bonin. I found this movie very incomplete about the true facts. Bonin killed over 16 young men, he was only convicted of 14. Bonin and his minions, would use Chloroform to knock the victims out, they would then have sex with them and then kill them. The night when he was arrested he was in the act of abusing a young hustler in a gas station parking lot in Hollywood. Bonin was killing young men in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas for years. He was even on parole. He was on parole for the same thing. He was not under police watch. No one knew who The Freeway Stranglar was until he was arrested. He lived on Death Row for over 12 years.

I never saw a flick with Scott Anthony Leet but what he performed here really did impress me. His face and his laughter really gives you the creeps. And after doing some research on William Bonin he really looked like him. As you all know who follows me on the net I'm not only into horrors I do dig serial killers too. And I have seen a lot of movies about serial killers, some really bad (B.T.K. for example with Kane Hodder) and some really good. This one here I do file under a real good one. Why, because it delivers what you expect from such kind of movies. You really go into the character and not that much into his killings. Now and then we are confronted with some killings and they are gruesome. It isn't all based on the real life of William, he was a pedophile and killed 45 boys. But he was also as we can see in this movie the first one who got a lethal injection. The fact of Vernon is true but he had more companions than shown in this flick. Of course the director couldn't show them all, then he should have made a flick like The Deliberate Stranger or To Catch A Killer which both clocks in over 3 hours (to catch even clocks in at 360 minutes). It's funny to mention To Catch A Killer because Scott did remind me of Brian Dennehy's performance. I guess that the production changed the names of his companions with a reason, just let me say that William Pugh was sentenced to 6 years. Bonin was prisoned for 17 years before he got his injection so the end of the flick wasn't really right. Whatever, a great flick to see and collect if you are into serial killers and horror. And of course don't forget to catch the short performance of Eileen Dietz of The Exorcist (Pazuma) fame and it's also funny to see Michael Rooker playing the good guy in a serial killer flick due his fame as a serial killer in Henry: A Portrait Of A Serial Killer.