MovieChat Forums > The Alphabet Killer (2009) Discussion > Two Good Things About This Movie

Two Good Things About This Movie

posted 14 years ago by Gheelnory
10 replies | jump to latest

No, I'm not referring to the gratuitous boobage in one of the hospital scenes. :p

Instead, I'm talking about these things that I thought lent some interest to the movie:

1) The casting of actors famous for playing killers. For me this went beyond mere gimmickry: I really was distracted in the process of trying to figure out Who Done It by the presence of Elwes, Ironside, Noonan, et al.

I suppose it couldn't work for a second movie, but it struck me as a fairly clever ploy in this one.

2) The depiction of a person who suffered from mental illness yet still had valuable insights. Arguably, Dushku's character had such insight BECAUSE of her illness.

Not that such a conclusion is proven science. But it does go to show that there are mysteries to the workings of the human mind, and we are wise to avoid stereotyping the mentally ill.

[–] cherrycherry28 14 years ago

I agree with 2). I found it fascinating that she was (for a time) so good at her job because of her schizophrenia.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Dash99 14 years ago

After I watched it, I was like are these characters real and I come on here they aren't, how weird. But I get the general idea what the writer and director wanted to do, not so much about the murders but the characters which is weird considering this is based very loosely on a true event.

[–] acrylics_2000 14 years ago

Famous for playing killers?

I guess I'm not following you there...can you explain a bit of your thinking on this one? The only ones I can think of are Saw and Machinist, but they weren't the actual killers in those. I know Noonan has played some creepy characters too, but let me know. Thanks.

[–] FrankBooth_DeLarge 14 years ago

Noonan played the killer in Manhunter, and was damn scary in that role. Otherwise I'm not that familiar with other killers he's played, but that one definitely comes to mind.

[–] jackalman22 14 years ago

Nice points.

Elwes played the killer in Kiss the Girls. It was a twist in the film if I recall.

[–] melikeemovies 14 years ago

If Michael Ironside doesn't play a cop, he usually plays a bad guy. TOTAL RECALL, SCANNERS and WATCHERS come to mind off the top of my head.

You also forgot Bill Mosely who was in some of the TEXAS CHAINSAW sequels of the 80's and was in HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS just to name a few.

And Timothy Hutton played a supernatural killer in THE DARK HALF.

[–] IMDBUser1969 13 years ago

Potential Spoilers:

Totally disagree that she had insight because of her illness. I did not see any evidence of this. Overall, she seemed to be a terrible detective. If her insights were so great, the killer would have been caught. To me, the movie seemed to be giving her credit for finding the killer, even though the killer never technically was found (as is said at the end). Wow - she gets credit for finding him even though he's still on the loose? Seems like total fantasy to me. Remember, based on a true story does not mean it IS a true story. I bet a lot of this movie was completel fiction.

The movie implies she had the ability to see the dead AND had mental illness, not that her ability to see that dead was MISTAKEN for mental illness. There's a lot of evidence she was straight up mentally ill; more than likely she hallucinated dead people - not actually saw them.

[–] AshesofourHearts 13 years ago

I thought the two good things about this were:

1) The performance of Bill Mosely

2) The performance of Martin Donovan

But that's just me

[–] rc-108 7 years ago

I liked Melissa Leo and Martin Donovan.
plus a lot of recognizable faces in the cast...

Overall I enjoyed it.. and Dushku... also.