Freeway Killer

There can be No Excuses. No Matter the Budget, it is Incomprehensible to make a Movie about a Real-Life Serial Killer and Eliminate the Most Profound Identifying Characteristics of said Serial Killer. Bill Bonin was a Sexual Predator First and Foremost. He was a Gay Killer/Torturer/Rapist who Preyed on Teenage Boys and the Brutality of His Crimes are Well Known.

So Why Bother? The Movie is Competent, even Well Done as far as it goes and the Acting is Certainly Up to the Task at hand. But the Disassociation from and Elimination of the Sexual Aspects (aside from a few lines of dialog) about the Nature and Motivation of the Crime Spree is Unacceptable and Disrespectful of the Victims.

Even with all the Glaring and Sneering and Far Away Eyes of the Lead Actor, the On Screen Character Never Comes Close to Fleshing Out the Real Freeway Killer. The One On Display here is a Bonafide Psycho No Doubt but the Real Life Sexual-Maniacal Whack-Job is Somewhere in the True-Crime Files and Nowhere to be Seen here.

This is a Missed Opportunity because the Ingredients are all here. Some Good Acting and Low-Low-Budget Exposition, but it is a Shame that the Filmmakers Stayed Away from Exploiting the Excesses of the Motivational Kill-Lust, Perhaps a Fear of Exploitation, but in doing so the Heart of the Story is Abandon when it should have been Cut-Out, Carved-Up, and Creatively Displayed.

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.

Reading the reviews, one of them stated that this was an other 'Henry' (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer). I do have to disagree on that comment. An other 'Henry' it is definitely not. What made 'Henry' so interesting, especially in that time, is the dark, grim and depressing feeling of realism. 'Freeway Killer' is a lot more cleaned up.

Bonin was a real MF, who murdered out of lust. He raped his victims before he killed them, and also tortured quite a few of them. The fact that he was a lust murderer is only vaguely hinted at in this movie, but not more than that. The part of the torture is left out completely. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing for the viewer, but it would make the movie a lot more realistic, both in feeling but also in showing what his motives were.

And that's an other point I would like to make. Bonin was abused as a child, probably by his grandfather, and definitely when he was in a juvenile detention center for the theft of license plates. This background of child abuse shaped him into an abuser first and later into a merciless killer. But, in 'Freeway Killer', there are only some subtle hints of this troubled childhood.

Instead of focusing on Bonin's motives and background, this movie focuses more on the time before his arrest and his relationships with some of his accomplices.

Now, that having said, I do want to point out that 'Freeway Killer' is not a bad movie. The casting was good, thankfully definitely in appearance. Both Scott Leet and Dusty Sorg look like the real killers, which is something I find pretty important. I was impressed by the acting of Dusty Sorg, his acting looked very natural, but the acting of Scott Leet was not bad either. He managed very well in giving Bonin a good streak of madness. And that was most effective when he went from charming to predator in a split second.

Freeway Killer doesn't stand out the way 'Henry' does. Though the subject is dark, it is not a movie that will make you turn away your head. Which makes it watchable for a broader audience. There is hardly any blood and the few murder scenes are chilling but leave most to the imagination. If you find this a good or a bad thing is totally up to your idea of what a good serial killer movie defines. About background information, 'Freeway Killer' does nothing more than giving hints. This goes for his childhood, his development into a serial killer (which is left out), and also the way he was finally caught. Still, the hints are there, and it does stay reasonably true to the facts.

Overall, I have seen better. But I also have seen a lot, lot worse. I am somewhere in between giving this movie 6+ or 7- points, and for now I lean towards a 7-.

Well, I just finished watching this and I must say I'll be looking forward to seeing Scott Leet in the future. What a performance! He alone made this movie worth watching. And no, I'm not a friend of his, but I certainly am a fan now. His take on the main character was just pure genius. As a fan of horror-thrillers, he has my vote for "best performance of a psychopath" ever. I thought he was as good as Jack Nicholsen was in The shining. Yeah, that friggin' good!!! Watch for yourself and pay attention to the many expressions and micro-expressions he pulls off throughout the entire flick.

Those who rated this a "1" should be ashamed. If you don't like a movie give it a 3 or 4. To give a "1" means you don't fully understand the "1-10 scale". Unfortunately, a great many people don't, which is why a lot of movies get passed on without a second thought.

I hope many of you don't pass on this because of the low rating like I almost did. You will have really missed out.