Watch To Catch a Killer For Free

good back-story, and good acting

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A serial killer is a compulsive person. He may take a break from killing, but will sooner or later return to his old ways and eventually be stopped either by law, accident or natural death.I have seen a lot of serial killers in my life. This film starring Brian Dennehy is one of the more memorable films. Brian Dennehy should have won an award of some sort for the chilling portrayal of Gacy. Indeed the actor and the character are so interwoven, that Dennehy really becomes Gacy. This is something for person reading this review to see for himself.In the beginning of the film we see a young teenager Christopher Gant who is working in a department store, when he suddenly goes out for a moment and is never seen again. His parents go to the Police who forward them to Detective Joe Koczenczak (superbly portrayed by Michael Riley). Joe takes over the investigation. He later finds out that Chris was noticed talking to a John Gacy outside the department store. Joe concluded that the two might have left together and so he visits Gacy at his home. Gacy denies anything to do with Chris Gant, and so Joe is at a dead-end with Gacy.He decides to probe into Gacy's background...The film has a superb cast, the background score and effects enhance the chilling atmosphere of the film. The script is well polished and to my belief without any flaws. The viewer can expect no violence, gore, killing in the film - the reason why the film is so good is because it is left to the viewer's imagination as to what happened to Gacy's defenseless victims.Other Serial Killer Films: Citizen X 1995/Evilenko 2004, The Deliberate Stranger 1986/Ted Bundy 2002, The Boston Strangler 1968, The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer 1993/Dahmer 2002, Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation 2007/ The Gray Man 2007, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 1/2(1986-1996), Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile 1974. All of these films are based on the lives of real-life serial killers.

This contains spoilers if you know nothing about John Wayne Gacy.From what I know the story is pretty well accurate, and the movie in general is a good piece of work, however it would be great if it were not for the portrayal of Gacy. I am not an expert on serial killers however I do know that John Wayne Gacy was a lovable and charming man until it came down to his actual act of murder. I can get passed the idea of the lone heroic cop who knows the truth because it is more entertaining, yet I feel Brian Dennehy's choice to react in such an angry way to this cop's investigations as completely out of character to Gacy. Gacy was a groomer, policeman who were watching him during his time under house arrest said that they "had to keep reminding themselves that he is a murder suspect". Anyone who knew him said he was the last person they could ever think to be a murderer.Gacy should have been portrayed as the most normal and lovely human being when it comes down to him in scenes with others who aren't his victims. That way seeing him switch off into his serial killer state of mind would have been more shocking to watch and in my opinion more entertaining. That was the real John Wayne Gacy.

This film was a very mediocre telling of the story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The acting wasn't all that hot (except for Dennehy) and it had that distinctive made-for-tv look and feel to it. My one major complaint is that Dennehy was too aggressive in his role of John Gacy. The thing that made Gacy so evil and diabolical was that he was friendly. He was popular. He was successful. He seemed like a nice guy. Dennehy shows Gacy to be a real a**hole, which at times he was, but he doesn't show that friendly side. Besides that the film is alright. It is a fairly honest rendition of the whole event, but of course since it is a made-for-tv movie, lacks the grizzly details. I recommend it to people familiar with the Gacy case or people looking to learn more, but if you I would recommend reading a book (such as "Killer Clown") as well, just so you get the WHOLE story.

I have the full-length DVD version of this movie and, while it is fairly suspenseful, it would have been much better had they made it more believable. For one thing, by today's standards, the movie was way too "tame." John Wayne Gacy was a MONSTER, yet in the entire 3+ hours of this movie, he never utters ONE curse word. The worst thing he says is something like, "so long, dummies." Yeah, right. Why couldn't they have let Brian Dennehy utter a few "F***S" or "S**TS", as is probably what Gacy would have said "in the REAL world?" Also, the police discovered somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 bodies under Gacy's house. Why couldn't they have included at least a little bit of the "gore" that the police actually found on that fateful day? Anybody who has an interest/fascination in the subject of serial killers usually WANT to see the bodies, if nothing else, out of curiosity. Not only would that have made the movie more believable, but also more frightening, which is what horror movie fans want to feel in the first place. I also have several questions regarding the actual plot of the movie. One example is this business about them using a "psychic" who looked in her "crystal ball" and told the detective she saw all the bodies buried under the house. I have read many books on the Gacy case and have never heard of that happening. (isn't it odd that psychics can always tell you only PART of what you want to know, but never a direct answer?) There are many other "holes" in this movie, but I won't mention them here, just to save time. Over all, on a scale of 1 - 10, I would rate this movie a 5, simply because it is too "networky", if you know what I mean. It's too "squeaky-clean". Almost "family-oriented", because it is all totally "suggestive."