Serial killers have always fascinated the creative imagination and this has resulted in characters as diverse as Hannibal Lecter and Michael Myers. However, arguably the most interesting cinematic serial killers are those who are based in real life. Do you remember when the Jeffrey Dahmer case broke? Remember all the lurid details of cannibalism and necrophilia? Did you see the cops taking out his refrigerator in which the remains of young men lay? There are many interesting ways that real life serial killers can be portrayed - through documentary, as a backdrop to a story, as a psychological study, as an instrument to shock and horrify, as a comment on society. I have tried to include a broad range of real life based serial killer films. Each of them takes a unique approach to their subjects but they don't offer up fava beans and a glass of Chianti.
10. Gacy (2003)
John Wayne Gacy was an American rapist and serial killer, also known as the Killer Clown. He was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of at least 33 boys that happened between 1972-1978 in Chicago. His victims were lured or inveigled to his home and he would strangle them. He buried 26 of them in the crawlspace under his home, another three on his property and four were chucked in a river. Gacy was convicted of 12 of the murders and spent 14 years on Death Row before being killed by lethal injection in 1994. I doubt very much that Gacy is a piece of cinema verite. I would say it is heavily fictionalised but it is a disgusting sort of replica of the kind of man Gacy was and the heinous exploits he got up to. What got to me in the film was all the maggots. Maggots maggots everywhere and not a drop to drink. Coming up the sinks in his house, all over his crawlspace. And the neighbours cheerily complain about the stink. Little do they know what horrors are going on below Gacy's house. Besides the bugs and the stink, there wasn't much happening. It wasn't a psychological portrait of Gacy - it was too shallow. For example a scene at the start of the movie suggests Gacy is a monstrous killer because his dad gives him a slap up the jaw on a camping trip. Oh woe is me. The direction and acting is pretty terrible and there is too much filler. I fell asleep towards the end of it, it was so soporific. In no way a realistic portrayal of one of the 20th century's vilest figures.