The Boston Strangler

I've always had a thing for 'serial-killer-murder-movies', so of course i jumped at the chance to view this one. I'm sure that it has it's qualities, but the music... holy cr... I mean, c'mon. There's this underlying synth-thingie that becomes more or less audible depending on what's being said. That may work in some cheezy horrorflick... but it really put me off this one. Sad but true.

I found myself listening more to the "crescendos" of the music rather that what was being said. So.. i cannot honestly say that I've seen the movie.

Am i being picky? mayhap, but since i could not get past the (sort of) music, there was little or no treasure for me in this one. :(

Some extra-dark version of Samuel L. Jackson spends over an hour berating an investigator with severe cystic acne scarring. Annoying full-length shots of women being overpowered and strangled without any real sexual violation, even though the killer(s?) are supposed to be sexually driven. At some random point, some Tim Gunn-type man takes over investigation, advised by his distracting bowties. Flashbacks to the most lame murders of the movie. Boston has an ugly skyline and contributes nothing to the film. Accents change as drama escalates. Random clichés such as "innocent until proved guilty" randomly uttered by cast. Acting on par with that of my first play in elementary school.

...it won't hurt you to see this movie.

It follows the conventional pattern of the persistent detective against the clever quasi-genius murderer, but in this case the detective is not willing to prove the guilt of a murderer trying to evade it, but rather the contrary.

Nothing spectacular in this film, but nothing so dreadful either. You won't remember this movie after you see it... ...but you won't feel you completely waste your idle time either.

The story is supposed to develop along many years, with the core in the sixties, a soft twist by the seventies, and a short epilogue by the beginning of the new millennium. But I have to confess that it looks to me as at least the eighties all the time, no way at any point the viewer will even consider that any of the action takes place in the sixties. Even more, if they tell you that it's contemporary it won't be hard to believe so. So there you have one weakness of this movie: lack of temporal credibility.

It's based on the true case that gives its name to the film, and the murdered represented here is actually the one accused, sentenced and killed in prison. The movie respects this but adds doubt about his culpability. This is the core of the plot and the reason-tyo-be of this movie.

Surpraisingly the third credited character (the beautiful and supportive detective's wife) the delicious Camille Lannan was not included in the profile. I've sent the update to make justice to this subtle beauty!

This is a movie that works around a detective taking the confession of "the strangler." 90% of the movie is between the detective and the strangler talking. We are taken briefly through each of the murders, perhaps too briefly. There are a couple sections in the movie towards the end where it jumps ahead in time way to quick. It feels like the director decided to just finish the movie and wanted the quickest way there without resolving much of anything. So while you may have been into the story you feel cheated by the abrupt ending.

It is apparent that it is a low budget film but thats not all that important since there are few scenes that are not the confession scenes. I would assume that is why the director failed to go into detail with the murders individually (to cut costs). As a suspense it is OK... an interesting watch. If you don't expect a lot from the movie you won't be disappointed.

I'm from Boston and know people who were questioned about the murders. It was a little disappointing to see how this was put together. And I don't remember De Salvo having a foreign accent, the real De Salvo grew up in Massachusetts. Sure the actor looked a little like the real De Salvo, but his accent made the story seem fake. The overall feel of the movie was worse than a made for TV movie. The photography for the movie was very jumpy. The costumes for the time period didn't match very well.

If you are looking for something scary or gory, this is not it. It's more of a history movie you'd see in high school on the reel to reel during class. I didn't even watch the whole thing. Terrible.