Two Very Different Freeway Killer Reviews

Tom Becker over at DVD Verdict is very dissatisfied with the treatment of the story of true life serial killer William Bonin (Scott Leet) in Freeway Killer, which comes out February 16th.  In particular, he finds it odd that the film glances over the fact that most of Bonin’s crimes were sexual in nature, and posits an interesting theory as to why that might be:

“Cynically speaking, I suspect that if Bonin had been assaulting and killing young female hitchhikers, Freeway Killer would have gone full-bore lurid exploitation, but guy-on-guy sodomy is a tough selling point. This begs the question: why make a film about a sexual deviant if you don’t address his sexual deviance?”

Michael R. Allen, writing for Associated Content, is less bothered by the omission:

“This real life horror film ironically does not portray some of the more graphic instances of rape and torture in an attempt to focus on the entertainment value of the story rather than the horrifying informative aspects of this real life homicide cases.”

Allen’s only gripe is that the motivation of the killer is left out of the picture.  Thoroughly impressed with Leet’s performance, Allen gives the film “7.75 nightmares out of 10″ while Becker finds the film “guilty of pandering.”

IMDb, with only 9 votes in, rates the film at 2.3/10.

Night Stalker Review: Worst. Serial Killer Movie. Ever.

Brain Hammer over at horroryearbook.com reviews a couple of true-life serial killer titles, including Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas, for which he shares less love than the Beverly Hills Film Festival did, and helmer Ulli Lommel’s Night Stalker, which may be a watershed moment in the surprisingly long history of attempts to tell the story of Richard Ramirez:

“Well so far I’ve seen three attempts, and all three were terrible! The other flicks were so bad I don’t even feel like naming them, but incredibly Ulli Lommel somehow manages to top them and made arguably the worst serial killer flick that I have ever seen.”

If you want to see how bad it can get, you can buy Night Stalker here.

My Antonio Is a Serial Killer

First Parker Lewis plays Ted Bundy, now the latest celebrity to look for love on reality television does a turn as Henry Lee Lucas and, according to the Beverly Hills Film Festival,  does a great job.  Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas won Best Actor for Antonio Sabato, Jr., Best Actress for Caia Coley, and Best Director for Michael Feifer, who’s made it his business to document real life serial killers direct-to-DVD for the past few years.  His previous efforts chronicle the aforementioned Bundy as well as the BTK Killer, Richard Speck, the Boston Strangler and the grandaddy of all American psychos, Ed Gein (many of those movies, incidentally, also starred Caia Coley).

Drifter arrives today.  You can buy it here.

Interview: Parker Lewis Can Kill You

Deseret News interviews Corin Nemec, star of true crime story Bundy: A Legacy of Evil, which dropped recently on DVD.  You may remember Nemec from Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, which also (finally) came  out on DVD recently.  Reviews have not been kind, one going so far as to question the film’s moral compass.  Trailer below: