This is The Killer Inside Me week. The Alphabet Killer is currently available on instant Netflix.
PASS: The Alphabet Killer (2008) – Rated R for some language and violence.
“In this psychological thriller inspired by true events, Eliza Dushku (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) stars as Megan Paige, a dogged police investigator obsessed with capturing a demented serial killer targeting young girls in Rochester, N.Y. Haunted by the grisly rape and murder of a 10-year-old victim, Paige begins to suffer hallucinations that culminate in a suspense-filled climax. Cary Elwes and Timothy Hutton co-star.”
“Mostly the job is to ask questions. The frustrating part, the part that drives you crazy, is that the people you really want to talk to are dead.”
Poor Eliza Dushku. She just cannot seem to find the right role. She was fantastic as the “bad” vampire slayer Faith in 20 episodes of Buffy and a half dozen of Angel. Realizing her potential, especially in the genre market, executives cast her as the lead in Tru Calling.
Tru Calling did not work out – two seasons and it was not very good. Joss Whedon then cast her as the sexy lead in Dollhouse. Fox executives, perhaps learning from the debacle of canceling Firefly early… and Family Guy… and Futurama…you get the picture, extended Dollhouse for a second season but ratings got worse.
In between series, Eliza gets roles in various movies. Here she has the starring role as Megan Paige, a homicide detective who does not so much do detective work as hallucinate what the victim went through. Poor Eliza even breaks her cardinal rule of no nudity here and is briefly topless.
Eliza gets backup here from a few other actors who did not quite make it. Cary Elwes plays her boyfriend and boss. Cary has gone from being Westley (/sigh) in The Princess Bride to being the victim Dr. Gordon in Saw, a role he will apparently reprise in (ugh) Saw VII.
Timothy Hutton, in spite of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Ordinary People, also bounces back and forth between movie roles (mostly supporting) and starring television roles. He plays Richard Ledge here and is currently Nathan Ford on Leverage.
Genre actors Tom Noonan and Michael Ironside provide good support as fellow police officers and Bill Moseley appears as a suspect. The writer Tom Malloy also puts in an appearance as Officer Steven Harper.
Unfortunately the writing is not very good. Megan keeps acting more and more insane solely in order to set up the ending. That anyone would let her near an investigation twitching like a junkie in need of a heroin fix is beyond ridiculous.
MINOR SPOILER: One of the main problems is that if you watch a lot of movies, you will realize exactly who the killer is within minutes of their appearance. There are actually three easy to spot reasons why this person is the killer so the script is actually full of overkill in this regard.
Also do not even get me started on the whole Based on a True Story fiasco. If you trace things far enough back most are based on a true story – that is why stories resonate emotionally – because they are grounded in reality in some fashion. Of course this story has almost nothing in common with the events that inspired it.
The actual ending is pretty (unintentionally) hilarious.
The film as a whole is not bad but neither is it good. Give this one a pass.
People Watch: Carl Lumbly plays Dr. Ellis Parks here but you may remember him best as Marcus Dixon on Alias.
