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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The victim of a hysterical proto-sadist video press campaign which killed its initial theatrical run, The Black Panther is actually anything but the insensitive exploitation piece is was labelled as which damned it so long to distribution limbo.Charting the bizarre killing spree of wannabe criminal mastermind Donald Neilson, this insightful, intelligent thriller feels chillingly authentic in the way it is constructed. No avant- garde pretensions or sensationalist hyper reality to be found here unlike its accused grindhouse brethren. Director Ian Merrick is to the point with his direction and only benefits the film with his "lack of adventure" should i say, but major credit goes to Michael Armstrong who's minute detail script does what the journalists at the time couldn't be bothered with and lays out fully the whole grim affair to the best the evidence available could suggest. Donald Sumpter is fearless as Panther. A little theatrical for some maybe, but you have to consider that this was no ordinary serial killer. A house thief that turned to armed robbery, then kidnap for ransom, this was no clueless man-child or crusading zealot, he really thought himself as a criminal genius and so would be full of himself, yes? Sumpter understood this and his portrayal of Neilson as the tragic fool gives great clarity to the events on top of the well researched script. Overall a horrific, challenging and truthful dramatisation that is a masterclass in true life crime filmmaking, a hidden gem.

This film is a pastiche and bears very little resemblance to the real man or the true facts of the case. It is riddled with errors from start to finish. Donald Neilson did not murder Lesley Whittle, he was not even present at the scene when she died. He fled on the night of the failed ransom drop leaving her alive and she died several days later after falling from the ledge. Anyone wanting to know the true facts of this case should read Harry Hawkes' book The Capture of the Black Panther and Adam Mars Jones book Lantern Lecture and put this film where it belongs - in the dustbin. Harry Hawkes followed the case from the beginning and was the only reporter to attend every one of Neilson's court appearances including the Court of Appeal in London. Adam Mars Jones is the son of the trial judge and acted as the Judge's Marshall at the trial. Mr Justice Mars Jones agreed with his son's conclusions on the case.

I wasn't expecting too much from this, to be honest. the reviews I'd read in the past hadn't done the movie many favours and the lurid cover art on the video tape really makes you fear for the worst- but, in all reality, its not that bad. I'm guessing that as it was made only a couple of years after the actual crimes depicted that it could have run into trouble, what with the brutal nature of Nielsons crimes and the fact that it had been such a very public series of events that horrified Britain over its weetabix and toast as it flicked past page three and looked for what was on the telly that night in the national tabloids. The movie, for those too young and in foreign parts to remember or to even know, tells the story of ex-army loner Donald Nielson who, to subsidise his income has taken to robbing local post-offices. In a series of military style raids, Nielsons crimes escalate to the point where he ruthlessly murders 3 postmasters whilst all the time planning the kidnapping of a 17 year old whose late father had left her a large inheritance. The film is creepy and effective, Donald Sumpters bizarre performance as the titular Panther makes you want to double-check the door before you go to bed and pull the curtains all the way across the windows.. Of course, despite Nielsons detailed planning, things go terribly wrong. The films careful direction and adhesion to the known facts of the real events add an air of credibility seldom seen outside of the small screen, and its use of locations close to the real ones make it all the more unsettling. Whether or not the drain where the on-screen Whittle meets her horrible demise is a set or a location in Bathpool park, it still makes you uneasy and once again begs the question- is this just trashy exploitation or something much harder to face, perhaps a desire to present the ever awful truth?

Living in the surrounding area of where the crimes took place I was pleased to find that the film followed the truth of what actually happened very closely.I enjoyed the film immensely,I thought it was well acted and well shot.