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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fresh and Exciting

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A washed-up freelance journalist stumbles upon a serial killer in his city. When the killer finds out that a journalist knows about him, instead of killing the journalist, the killer asks to be interviewed. This premise is an interesting one, though not really original (check out the Kurt Russel movie "The Mean Season"). It could have worked again here, but the end results are pretty poor. None of the characters seem to be very interesting, even the serial killer. In fact, all the characters in the movie make some really stupid decisions when common sense would have quickly ended this story. The movie moves at a snail's pace because there's simply not enough story here. Don't get me wrong - I like a lot of low budget B movies, but this one is so poorly made that even I can't forgive its shortcomings.

I don't know why everyone is so harsh towards this movie. I saw this movie really late at night on one of the "premium" channels, and by the end my side hurt from all the laughing. Often time one is reminded of a modern day Ed Wood with this films script and production values. As I don't want to ruin any of the film for you, I would be remissed if I didn't mention how funny the scene where Gary Busey's character is running through the streets. As mentioned by another, the scene is done with a stand in, in a ridiculous wig. The scene was shot totally guerilla style during some sort of nighttime festival on the streets of a very "New Orleanish" city. Basically the standin in the wig runs into various groups of people while Busey's voice is dubbed in yelling things. This was sort a high point for the film when its truth was laid out there for all to see.If you can imagine how funny this scene would be then this film might hold some value to you.

A cliched, thoroughly unbelievable plot does this one in; it requires EVERY CHARACTER in it (the "hero", the detectives, even the killer) to be a moron. Busey is miscast, but Madsen manages to be pretty funny (intentionally) even though he is quite visibly bored out of his mind, and Vosloo is downright creepy as the serial killer - he acts as if he's in a good movie. Laughable "twist" ending. (*1/2)

From what was touted on the box as the best independent video release of the year, Diary of a Serial Killer had a lot to do to live up to that promise.Unfortunately it did not even come close.It tries very hard not to have the look of a cheap telemovie, but its parentage peeks through and unhappily reminds you exactly how cheap it is.I can see what the writer and director were trying to do with the Busey character, and his inner torment at having to interview a serial killer. But it just didn't come off that well on screen.Arnold Vosloo isn't that bad, but is let down by some truly awful dialogue.A great idea, but poorly executed.