The Clovehitch Killer (2018)

Day 111 of Sobriety. 

I had never heard of this movie at all until the day before I watched it, when it appeared in my Amazon Prime Video recommendations. I thought it sounded interesting, so I checked it out.

It's often described as a “coming-of-age” movie, and I can see why—it’s kind of like The Wonder Years with a really scary serial killer in it. The plot is about a 16-year-old boy growing up in a very devout Christian family in a community that, about ten years prior to the beginning of the film, was traumatized by an unsolved string of murders. The story begins when Tyler, the young boy, discovers that the perpetrator of those horrible crimes could be shockingly close to home.

The eponymous killer in the movie is based on real-life serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer who murdered more than ten people in Kansas between the mid-seventies and early nineties. I have to say that while the movie does not feature any of the blood and gore that might be expected in a film about a serial killer, the depiction of the killer is still one of the most unsettling I can remember seeing in a movie. The portrayal by actor Dylan McDermott is utterly convincing, and the murders are depicted in a way that displays more sympathy for the victims than tends to be the case in such films. That imbues them with a much heavier impact, sense of outrage, and real sense of horror.

Those aspects of the film are handled very well, and all of the performances, including those of the many child actors are great. The overall atmosphere of slow-building dread is also skillfully achieved and very effective. What I felt let the film down, however, was a number of gaping plot-holes—particularly at the conclusion. But despite those serious flaws, it's still a compelling watch that I could definitely recommend.

On an alcohol-related note, It was interesting that the killer, who is ostensibly a very devout, almost puritanical, Christian, has a refrigerator filled with nothing but cherry cola, and even that he considers to be something of an illicit indulgence, which he hides along with his murder accoutrements and mementos. No drunken Jeffrey Dahmer, this guy...