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Simply Perfect

Perfect cast and a good story

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

Albert H. Fish is a prolific serial killer who targets young children, killing them & eating their bodies afterwards, who haunted New York City in the 1920s. He cons his way into a poor family's home & kidnaps their young daughter, pretending to take her to a birthday party. He takes the girl to an isolated house where he kills her & eats her body. When she fails to return, the family calls in the police. Missing Persons Unit detective William King dedicates himself to the case & attempts to track down Fish. But Fish is an exceptionally clever killer & the only thing that stands in King's way is Fish's deteriorating mental state.This is a retelling of one of 1920s America's most infamous serial killers. While many aspects of the story shown here are fabricated for the narrative's sake, the fact remained that Albert H. Fish was a menace to society at the time.The film does a good job of recreating 1920s' America, right down to the buildings & shop-signs (where you could get a soda for only 10 cents!) & the attitudes of the society at the time. Also of note is the fact that the limited forensic resources of the era allowed Fish to kill & eat as many children as he ultimately did & that the detective in charge of the case nearly lost his sanity chasing down the killer. The film is not perfect, but director Scott Flynn manages to make a passable detective yarn & in part an insight into how such a deranged mind could wreak as much havoc as he did at the time. Patrick Bauchau dives deep into the Fish character with fearless abandon, portraying a disturbed mind who was partly shaped by the bad childhood he experienced in the orphanage he grew up in (the ghostly pale boy that appears in some scenes is meant to be a symbol of Fish's lost childhood). For the supporting cast, Jack Conley is solid as the detective after Fish while Silas Weir Mitchell, who Steven Seagal fans will remember as the militia's second in command in the uber-flop The Patriot, does his role as Fish's unwitting son well. The only flaws in the film were the portrayal of the dead girl's mother as a complete attention-seeking buffoon & the somewhat slow pace but the film remains a reasonable entry in the thriller genre.

This isn't a slasher and given the fact that most of Fish's victims were children, which he sexually molested and cannibalized, that isn't too surprising a fact. Further evidence of this if needed was the fact the Chiller channel released this alongside Hitchcock's "Psycho" in a masters of suspense double bill.****Here starts the spoilers, in so much that reference will be made to the true story on which this is based and how this was portrayed in this film****What this is, notwithstanding, is a film that focuses on the murder of Grace Budd and the police investigation that leads to Fish's eventual arrest. Set against the backdrop of the great depression, the film shows the effects such crimes have, not only on the victims and their families, but indeed, the killer and his loved ones as well. It's worth mentioning this, as some of the photography and visuals belie the limited budget of this ambitious period piece. Mention has been made of a train and metal railings that were not to period, but given the budget and location this in itself is laudable and such things were well hidden from anyone but the most perceptive and in my mind no way interferes with the film or the telling of it. Certainly the set decoration and costumer departments did a wonderful job and scenes like the Western Union telegram repository are truly beautiful and evocative. Shot mostly in Gutherie and Oklahoma City the film does give one the look and feel of Depression-era New York. How they made The local Masonic Lodge look like Grand Central Station is beyond me, but that I guess is where a director's vision becomes very evident in the ability to see that and believably recreate it in such a strange location. An Easter egg in this scene are the flower and sweet sellers, which are the two news anchors for Fox 25, who ran coverage of the filming of the Gray Man under the heading "Okiewood"!!Drawing from the original letters Fish wrote to his family, lawyer, doctors... and most chillingly, several victims, these and the trial transcripts were handed to the Producers by Fish's trial lawyer and used as source material. Several scenes were also created around photographs of Fish and his family and while this doesn't add anything truly to the overall film, it does speak to the intelligent use by the director and makes for another wonderful Easter egg.This is one of the films you wish they had made a mini-series of. Plunging into the darkness the film maker holds on the central plot of the abduction and murder of Grace Budd. Given this was an Indie and thus the running time was dictated for commercial showing, it shows several abductions, alluding to the murders if not showing them. It would have been nice to have more and one suspects much had to be left on the cutting room floor. Still what we have is well crafted and accurate.In a world where we have become desensitized to violence the director goes the intellectual route and crafts suspense and leaves the bad things for your minds eye to create and dwell on. Something I wager which is far scarier. It isn't Disney, it's intelligent and for those that seek blood, gorging on human flesh and excrement this isn't the film for you. Yes these are mentioned or showed in a stylized way that retains the horror sans a Chuckyesque knife- wielding maniac. There is also no teenage sex or pounding rock music to distract you either. Flynn uses Bauchau in the vein of Wells, portraying him as a grandfatherly figure, the demonic is seen in flashes and in a command performance Bauchau's Fish is absolutely chilling.Further comparison can be had to the old masters in the stylized filming of the Budd scene in which we are introduced to the angelic Grace Budd. In fact throughout, the camera is moved wonderfully and every shot used to support and promote the emotional narrative. In the age of 5 camera lock-offs, jump cuts and CGI, is a film purist's dream. All in all, this was a film of which I left wanting to see more. While this wasn't a slasher or indeed, a documentary, what it is is a nicely crafted true crime story that is entertaining and makes one talk, think and feel. Overall the acting, camera work and direction were above par, with the jobs done by Bauchau, Flynn and Rudd respectively worth higher praise. The film is in Fincher territory rather than Roth, not that that's a bad or good thing, it just is. While this isn't the full story, we're all going to have to wait for a mini-series to get that. In the mean time color me intrigued and hoping for such an event.

This movie was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought it would be a more focused character study of Albert Fish - the kidnapper/murderer/cannibalizer of young children in New York City in the late 1920's-early 1930's. That angle isn't lost here. The movie opens with a depiction of Fish as an abused child in an orphanage, giving some insight into where he developed his sado-masochistic tendencies, but really this movie focused more on the police investigation into one case - the kidnapping, murder and cannibalizing of 10 year old Grace Budd. The Budd case was the one that eventually brought Fish down, and the movie really revolved around Police Detective William King, who headed the investigation into Budd's disappearance.Fish seems to have been one of the earliest serial killers to prey on young children. The cannibal angle makes the case even more sensational. The movie, thankfully, isn't very graphic, although the details of exactly what was done to young Grace are talked about but not depicted. What we hear is very disturbing. As far as the Budd case is concerned, the movie seems to be a pretty accurate depiction of real events, but really the Budd case is the only one looked at in any detail, even though there were several other child killings that Fish was responsible for.Patrick Bauchau was pretty convincing as Fish. He captured the part well - the guy was someone we would all think of as crazy, and yet he was sane enough to plan things out pretty methodically. And in a lot of respects he seemed pretty normal and trustworthy - making him even more frightening. Bachau did well. I wasn't entirely taken with Jack Conley as Det. King, and I found the depiction of Grace's mother (Jillian Armanante) to be strange. She was portrayed almost as being more interested in publicity than in her daughter. That may be true (everything else in this seems pretty accurate based on what I've read so I don't know why they writers would make that upon) but it still seems pretty strange to me.Really, this provides a glimpse into the mind and one crime of a notorious serial killer. A little more depth and insight would have been necessary to make this a truly good movie. (6/10)

Period detective movie with outstanding craft and style. Albert Fish was one of the first serial killers to live and die in America in the early part of the last century. Although he committed crimes beyond comprehension, his tale was relatively unknown, until now.The story is based on a solid script with emphasis on plot and character rather than gore and violence. This is not to say that this is a family movie. It just avoids the temptation of gratuitous violence and instead focuses on the human dimensions of the protagonists. The story follows Detective King on his obsessive manhunt as he assembles the clues to establish the killer's identity. At the same time, it attempts to read into the mind of the killer, even portraying a bit of his human side.There are great performances by Patrick Bauchau (Fish) and Jack Conley (Detective King). In addition, the stars of the movie was the stellar photography by Dave Rudd, and the production design by Jennifer Gentile. Given the modest budget, the film convincingly captures the feel of New York in the 1920s and 1930s. The art department went to great lengths to recreate the slightest period details. And yes, it was shot on actual 35 mm film, in unsurpassed color. A visual feast.