Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation

The voice acting is disgustingly overdone and the speculations by the interviewees are unfounded. The owner of the Odditorium is not a real expert and his rambling about Fish is not helpful. The reenactments are bizarre and weirdly drawn out and make it hard to take the story seriously. Examples: bare bottoms being spanked over dramatic music; an old man painting a wall with fake blood (twice); a tied-up man being whipped; a young man standing against a cross with arrows coming out of him while an old man stares at his ribs; Jesus standing in front of two angels; raw beef being chopped with a dull knife; an old man writing with a fountain pen and laughing while classical music plays on the radio. When there isn't an uncomfortably long reenactment scene, there are photos and clips of random images, most of which are irrelevant to the story. It was pretty clear that a lot of the pictures were grabbed from a Google search for some generic topic (the most egregious was the inclusion of a painting from an H. P. Lovecraft story as a reference to cannibalism). Any images that are actually important to the information (like a photograph of Fish) are used over and over and over again and are buried in the muck of "flavor." Really bad.

Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation (2007)

** (out of 4)

Extremely disappointing documentary from John Borowski who had previously made H.H. HOLMES: AMERICA'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER. This one here takes a look at Albert Fish, a now notorious killer who not only brutally murdered people but he also ate them.

This is part documentary, part re-enacted drama but neither one really works and they certainly don't work together. I was really disappointed with this film because of its extremely slow-pacing, which just kept it from having a very good flow. What really hurt the film is the fact that the narration is way too dramatic for its own good and there's just not too much life to the picture.

There are some some very good moments scattered throughout including a confession that is read, which just shows how crazy and downright creepy this guy was. The film like to go for some shock value as there are well detailed accounts of the cannibalism and the violence towards children.

The story is so horrifying and gruesome, even by today's standards, that the director's attempts at dramatization add nothing and are more of a distraction. Multiple shots of roasting meat in the shape of ass? Really? And too much time is spent with two dubious "experts," one of whom proudly describes how he acquired Fish's confession letter in an act of larceny (anyone send a copy of this film to the cops in Westchester County?) and who creepily asserts that Fish MUST have loved Grace Buddd in order to do what he did to her. Huh? Anyone want to go dig around in THIS guy's backyard? And all of the religious motivation nonsense is completely at odds with what we know about sexual homicide. It's all about a toxic mix of extreme self absorption and the desire to control others with a nice positive feedback of orgasm. That's it folks. No religious motive here. The religious stuff may have helped him rationalize what he did and certainly sweetened the filth aspect for this guy, but that's probably it. Read Schecter's Deranged instead for a good Fish account.

I've been watching some "True Crime" stuff and this fluffed-up film got recommended by Amazon. Not even watchable. Normally I make a point to endure movies all the way to their ends before reviewing them here, but this time I have to admit I turned it off halfway through. It's as though they had about ten minutes' worth of facts and fluffed them out to become a feature length film. Just read the Wikipedia article if you're curious about this repugnant human being.

Ever since I was a child, I've been hooked on true crime TV shows and documentaries, so I've seen countless versions. But, my goodness, I know the victims are long dead, but the level of disrespect in this is off the charts. This is the most shameless, exploitative, low-brow tripe masquerading as a true crime documentary I've ever seen. It's almost like the creepy, pretentious superfan they kept talking to had directed the documentary. The different narrators are laughable, from the "old-timey newscaster" voice to the "ghostly" woman voice to the voice meant to be Albert Fish's, they all increase the awfulness tenfold. The documentary trivializes the deaths by focusing on terrible, "artsy" "reenactments" and inserts (that all look like total crap, BTW).

This documentary was made by a failed film school student who loved Albert Fish. I'm actually curious to know about Albert Fish, but I'd do better watching a random on YT talk about it. In fact, there are YT channels who do a better job than this by far.