Gacy

MAY 4, 2007

GENRE: CRAP, SERIAL KILLER
SOURCE: DVD (ONLINE RENTAL)

"A fat guy in a clown suit rapes and murders drifters and buries them under his house, all the while remaining employed as a clown for children’s parties."

That’s the real story.

"A fat guy with a bunch of clown paintings smokes pot and occasionally kidnaps guys and then lets them go, or kills them off-screen, and shovels lime under his house to cover the smell, while remaining self-employed as a contractor of some sort. "

That’s Gacy's story.

Filmed in the most mountainous and west Los Angeles-y section of Illinois I have ever seen (hilariously, at one point a guy says “I’m headed for the west coast!” Just go outside pal, you’re obviously in Silverlake.), this may be the least interesting serial killer biopic ever committed to celluloid. The fat guy from Leprechaun is fine as Gacy, but the script amounts to nothing. Scenes and characters come and go with no rhyme or reason; Gacy’s hair changes color all the time, and most frustrating, the creepiest aspect of the guy (that he worked as a clown for children’s parties) is almost entirely left out (he appears ONCE in clown makeup during the entire film). Apparently, director Clive Saunders thought Gacy’s job as a contractor (who apparently never pays anyone) was much creepier, since about a third of the film is just him shuffling about on jobs, telling his employees to carry things and telling people he will get them their money.

Another third is just a fragmented collection of scenes that never have any sort of payoff, like one of his workers leaving crucial evidence on Gacy’s front lawn, or a neighbor threatening to call the cops about the smell coming from Gacy’s basement, or his mother being told that he is a rapist, or… well, you get the point. Unlike Saunders.

The other third (and I really do not think I am exaggerating here) consists entirely of cutaways to paintings of clowns. Seriously. Every 5-10 minutes, we are presented with a montage of clown paintings. Why? Who knows? Who the fuck cares?

There is also a crippling lack of demonstrating how much time has passed in between scenes. “Happy Mother’s Day”, Gacy says to his wife, two or three scenes after a 4th of July cookout. Then later, Gacy attacks a kid with a hammer (then apologizes, which is apparently good enough for the lad), and about 20 minutes later in the film, after a variety of scenes, the kid’s wound is still bleeding. Might wanna see a doctor about that.

Fuck this movie. The Brian Dennehy TV movie was more chilling (and more R rated, for that matter). The only reason I watched it was because, if you look at the bottom of the page where all the genre tags are listed (top to bottom in frequency), you’ll see that I have watched like 20 slashers but only 2 serial killer movies. So I am trying to even things out.

Course, now the "crap" genre has another entry.

What say you?