Watch The Hunt For the BTK Killer For Free

Touches You

So much average

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

180629: If you're a serial killer aficionado like myself, this made for television movie might provide some entertainment. If you're not, you'll be better served finding another avenue.

I caught this on Netflix and was surprised by how good it was, namely due to Henry's performance as Dennis Rader. I wasn't too into it in the beginning after hearing the usually great Robert Foster deliver a horrible line to a reporter. However, I overlooked it and bared through it which I'm glad I did. The film does not portray any of the killings and focuses on the actual hunt for the BTK killer which actually worked for the film because it gives the audience an even more uneasy feel watching Dennis Rader pick and choose his next potential victims. The film's greatness exists in Henry's performance. The performance is so controlled and hinders on the brink of a violent breakdown that as an audience member, you can't help but get the chills when you see him on screen.The film does have it's flaws, between horrendous acting from some actors and some campy and cheesy dialog it still screams TV movie. However, for a TV movie, this is pretty damn good. Let's put it this way, for a regular theater movie, this would be a 4/10 easily. For a TV movie, 8/10.

Dennis Rader went decades living as the BTK Killer (stands for Hunt, Torture, Kill), with his final amount murder list will probably never be known for sure. "The Hunt for the BTK Killer" follows Rader, played by Gregg Henry, and Detective Magida, Robert Forster, the man responsible for taking him down.This is a very good true to life television film. The story is for the most part correct, and while I don't know if there was a Det. Magida (or if that was the Detective's name) the police investigation kept me interested as to exactly how BTK was caught. Rader's kills are presented in a creepy and fascinating way. Overall the script is tight and consistently keeps your attention.Henry and Forster are really the only characters that are given much depth, but those two are the only ones that need it. The script typecasts Forster's Magida as your usual cop, he's an older gumshoe working with a beautiful younger actress as partner. Henry does a fantastic job as Rader, his interviews at the end are creepy and award-worthy.There is a voice-over narration by Forster that guides the film, which I suspect was brought in afterwards to tie up loose ends. In any other case, I would drop the quality down for using the worst tool in the business, but here it actually enlightened about Rader instead of insulting the viewer's intelligence.If you're interested in BTK, or serial killer media in general, this one is worth a watch.

I'm from the Wichita area, so am very familiar with this case and was shocked by the factual errors and poor quality of this film.The single redeeming quality of this movie is Henry's portrayal of Dennis Rader. He did an excellent job of capturing Rader's mannerisms and bore a striking resemblance to him.I'll try to list the factual errors sequentially. First off, Magida is a fictional detective, probably based on Ken Landwehr. There were no female detectives in lead roles on this case. I'm surprised at the leaps the movie makes, using the real names of the judge and attorneys but fictional names of law enforcement officers. Also, no detectives who were present at the scene of the Otero murders were on the team that eventually caught Rader.Second are the location errors. The Sedgwick County courthouse, where Rader's trial was held, is NOT a small, old-fashioned building in suburbia!! It's actually a very modern building, several stories tall in a busy downtown area. The "Cousins Cafe" is also a complete fabrication. Rader went home for lunch, as he was a creature of habit the police knew what time he would be headed there and apprehended him on his way to lunch.Third are the errors in the crimes committed and reported. He was only linked to 8 murders until shortly before his capture, the Hedge and Davis murders were not committed in Wichita and originally not thought to be BTK killings. The Bright murder was not portrayed correctly either, I will not go into the specifics...read the books if you want to know.On to the film itself. It begins with Rader in the courtroom recounting the murders, but abruptly shifts to a portrayal of the case from the fictional Magida's eyes. Either point of view would have been fine, but if this is meant to give an accurate look at the horror of the murders, several have been left out.If you are interested in the BTK case, I would NOT recommend watching this movie. Read one of the books, but not Beattie's, unless you're interested in long and irrelevant diatribes on the author's life.