She Screams, He Screams: The Alphabet Killer

The Alphabet Killer
Year: 2009
Director: Rob Schmidt
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Stars: Eliza Dushku, Cary Elwes, Timothy Hutton
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 98 Mins.





“The Alphabet Killer” is based on the killings that took place in the early seventies, in Rochester, New York. Megan Page (Eliza Dusku) is a police officer, who begins to develop schizophrenia, during her investigation of these killings. These episodes lead her to a mental breakdown, which she almost committed suicide. This leads her to lose everything, in her life, including her job and fiancé (Cary Elwes). Two years after that incident, Page’s life has gotten better, until that case that has been driving her crazy resurfaces in her life, as the killer is continuing his rampage. Now, she is determined to find this killer, even if it costs her sanity and well-being. The film also features a very talented cast that includes Timothy Hutton (TV’s Leveage, The Falcon and the Snowman) Michael Ironside (Scanners, Starship Troppers) Bill Moseley (Repo: The Genetic Opera, The Devil Rejects) and Carl Lumbly (Alias).


Kelsey’s Review:

The ongoing case of The Alphabet Killer centers around a man who raped and strangled all of his victims who were young girls. They also all had first and last names that began with the same letter. Three out of the four girls’ bodies were dumped in county’s that began with the same letter as their name. Just about everything that I described above is both true in the context of real life and the portrayal in the movie. The basic situation and the nature of the Alphabet Killer’s deaths stayed pretty true to the real events. This is so rare in based on true event horror films. The Alphabet Killer did this while creating an entirely new aspect to the film through out our schizophrenic protagonist, Megan Paige.

Actually having our main character diagnosed with schizophrenia pretty early on in the film I think it added a lot of great questioning for the audience. The bulk of the movie is told through Megan’s perspective. We see things through her eyes, but we have to question what is real and what is just part of her illness. A lot of horror films play the crazy person card, discrediting the person trying to get answers. Most of the time this isn’t very convincing to the audience. Here though, Megan truly doesn’t even know what is real and not. She sees the images of these dead girls and her inability to find the man who murdered them is literally driving her insane. I really thought that that obsession that Eliza Dushku portrayed in Megan really gave the film this great tension, but more importantly it paints her as a character. She gets so in to every element of cases she works on, which is what you have to do. However, Megan is haunted by it in a way that eats up her insides. This is such a part of her though that she can’t stop even once she is cured and gets a second chance at life. It’s really a vicious cycle though as it just tears her apart again, yet as long as she is alive this is all her life can be.

I went in to the film with pretty low expectations since I had heard enough bad things about the movie to be weary. The Alphabet Killer doesn’t quite hit all of it’s marks but it is far better than I expected. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I was drawn in to what was going on. It’s suspenseful and you can never be quite sure what is going on. Overall the film is pretty tame for an R rating. The only violence are the dead bodies that are recovered as well as Megan when she is injured. That’s fine though since the film doesn’t really rely on the gore. It’s much more about questioning ones own psyche, witnessing your own destruction, and becoming helpless while girls are being victimized by a twisted man that they have trusted and died for that decision. There are some great scenes where we see how the families deal with this along with Megan. We get in to the possible mindset of the killer enough too, which gets you thinking how some power hungered pedophile plants his next victim and continues to get away with it.

The film’s ending is what hurt it the most for me. Leading up to the ending the insight that is offered on the killer was strong enough. However, what followed that just seemed really typical and generic. The dramatic music with the voice over saying, “I will find him and I will kill him” really made this seem cheesy and took away what the film had built up for most of the movie. There was no real ending, it’s more of a ‘to be continued’ type of thing, probably so they can leave it open for a sequel if given the chance. I really think that would be a terrible idea as I don’t think there is enough that they could go off of to make another good film out of the material. Plus I doubt that there will be enough of a market for it. They made a bold decision in naming a killer and coloring him as a killer and deceptive person. So I am not sure why they couldn’t end it one way or another, whether he was caught or not. My biggest problem with the ending isn’t even really the actual outcome of the film. It is just how it was done that seemed degrading to the rest of the film. The Alphabet Killer doesn’t do anything that drastically different to stand out from superior films that have come before it like Se7en and Zodiac. The film throughout is held back and doesn’t have the material to really push the boundaries. Wrong Turn is the better Rob Schmidt-Eliza Dushku collaboration in my opinion. Overall, The Alphabet Killer is still a compelling suspenseful thriller that takes you in and creates that blurred line of illusions and reality

Anthony T’s Review:

This is what, the second edition of She Screams, He Screams, this year and for the second time, I’m going to have to trash a film, because it was just that bad, but not in the same way, as the last one, since there is real effort here. “The Alphabet Killer” is film that felt like an episode of “Medium”. This was a hard film to sit through, as I became uninterested with this film. The main reason for this was that the story felt like something that you would ordinary see in a TV movie of the week, where you have a crime and it’s somehow solved or explained to you, in the end.

The screenplay written by Tom Malloy (who also co-stars) had a story, where nothing seemed to work. There was no real suspense, as the film was hitting the same dark and dull note, all the time. It really made the film, very boring and made the identity of the killer, predictable, as I saw it coming just over the halfway point. It would have been nice, if we actually got into the killer’s mind like Seven and Zodiac, as they were very entertaining films. Also, another problem with the screenplay, I really never got to know the main character, very well. The screenplay doesn’t slow down enough to develop the Megan character, in the film, as really doesn’t spend the time going into the relationship that she with Carl Elwes’ character, in the beginning of the film. The screenplay also doesn’t make any attempt is show how the main character developed her mental disorder and effects that the case had on her, before her first stint, at the hospital.

But the main problem with this film was Rob Schmidt’s direction. His direction was felt unenergetic. He doesn’t do anything to try to change the pace of the film, as it kept hitting that same dull note. It’s that same note that makes the action boring and the characters uninteresting. That’s something that you would see in a made for television film, not a film with this caliber of talent. His direction of the actors was very bad. Schmidt doesn’t take advantage of a cast that features many talented people, like Eliza Dushku, Cary Elwes or Timothy Hutton. It sad to see these people wasted here, as this could have been a well-acted film, but the performances had no personality to them, which made the characters uninteresting and dull to watch.

Overall, this was a waste of time, as “The Alphabet Killer” is stuck on the same dull and dreary note for ninety plus minutes, which makes the whole story feel like a made for TV movie.