Taking inspiration from one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers, Peter Sutcliffe, this pseudo-documentary combines vintage footage with dramatised scenes in an attempt to reveal the inner psyche of a monster.
Taking inspiration from one of Britains most notorious serial killers, Peter Sutcliffe, this pseudo-documentary combines vintage footage with dramatised scenes in an attempt to reveal the inner psyche of a monster. Available today on DVD, our review continues below Peter: Portrait of a Serial Killer is the first feature length drama to contain genuine archive footage that takes the audience on a unique journey into the mind of Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper. Beginning with his formative years in Yorkshire, through the largest police manhunt in history, to his on-going psychological treatment in Broadmoor Hospital, issues of retribution, punishment, compassion and guilt are raised... Peter: Portrait of a Serial Killer is not what youd expect of film based on a real life criminal. Rather than dramatising the actual crimes, director Skip Kite is more concerned with entyering the mind of his subject and delving into the psychiology behind one of Britains most despicable mass murderers. However, what begins as a promising blend of orginal archive news footage and well-acted dramatised portions soon becomes a collection of disjointed and incohesive images and segments. The film follows a linear narrative pattern, but fails to slide seamlessly between the vintage footage and dramatised segments and eventually feels like a random collection of monologues. Obviously influenced by his previous work in music videos, Kite fails to make his scenes gel into a cohesive piece of filmmaking and viewers will likely come away feeling like thay havent learnt anything new about Sutcliffe or the motivations for his crimes. Released fresh off the heels of Appropriate Adult, ITVs recent dramatisation of Fred West (another infamous British serial killer), Peter: Portrait of a Serial Killer fails to engage audiences in the way that this typical true crime drama does. By choosing a more artistic and less fluid style, Kite will undoubtedly alienate a number of audiences and his film will certainly not appeal to the average Joe Popcorn DVD purchaser. Despite the flawed style and direction, the film does include some spectacular performances. Not only does actor Walt Kissinger look eerily like the real Sutcliffe, he manages to adopt the murderers mannerisms and voice perfectly. His performance highlights the light and dark aspects of Sutcliffes psyche in equal proportions: refraining from turning him into a two dimensional villain, whilst also managing to not make him too likeable a character either. Gary Sharkey as Sutcliffes psychologist gives a stellar performance that captures the characters own agenda in his work with Sutcliffe. Admirable support comes from a variety of other actors, but it is the real vintage television clips that prove the most interesting aspect of the film rather than the dramatised segments.
QUALITY
Due to the nature of the films style, the quality is rather diverse. The vintage archival clips obviously look less proficient than the dramatised portions, but even these look good for their age the graininess and blemishing helping add to the atmosphere of the film. The newly filmed dramatised segments are filmed in a very artistic way, with many shots looking more like a piece of modern art than a scene from a film. The lighting and colour schemes are often rather glib and dull, but this highlights the dark undertones of the films narrative in a successful way. The actual visual quality of these segments is generally very good, with only intentional grain or image distortion noticeable. The audio is similarly solid, with dialogue clean and clear throughout. Ambient background sounds are often rather sparse and quite quiet, but when special effects sounds are employed they take over the audio track and are extremely expressive. The musical soundtrack is rather minimal, reflecting Sutcliffes bleak existence and complimenting the artistic nature of the production. EXTRAS No bonus material is included on the DVD release. Peter: Portrait of a Serial Killer is available now on DVD.