July 14, 1966, Richard Speck entered a nurses dorm in Chicago. Once inside, he proceeded to torture, rape, and murder 8 young women in one of the bloodiest murders in history. Chicago Massacre is the second film I have watched in the past week to focus on this despicable excuse for a human being, the other one was called simply Speck. This one stars the unlikely candidate of Corin Nemec as our centerpiece killer, joining him in the cast are horror veterans Tony Todd (Candyman) and Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster, Lost). It is a low budget profile, but one that is not without its charms.There seem to be a bunch of these serial/mass killer themed direct to DVD films hitting the shelves, including Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, and our subject at hand, Richard Speck. I guess there will always be a fascination with this sick, depraved individuals, and the horror that they bring into the world. I cannot claim to know a lot about these guys, and am probably more familiar with the even more disturbed film characters that they inspired, in whole or in part. Still, watching something like Chicago Massacre that is much closer to reality, without being real, never make the mistake of believing this to be reality, can be a disturbing event. Even watching a dramatized and perhaps sensationalized version of what really happened can still stir up emotions that you may not know you had. I know that I felt a little off-kilter watching this, and it is not particularly good, while not particularly bad.
The film begins with a brief clip of Nemec, as Speck, behind bars musing on why they haven't let him loose yet. From here, the scene shifts to the past with Speck having one of his numerous run-ins with the law in Texas before hoping a train and leaving town. He arrives in Chicago, and he uses his odd charismatic charm to charm any lady he meets. One of the young women he meets, he decides to pay a visit to, in what would be the event that sealed his fate. It seems as if all he wanted to do was visit the girl he had met earlier, and possibly rob them. Plans change and the unbalanced side of Speck comes into play, what began as a robbery wound up being a night long torture session. He rounded up the women, bound them, and then one by one he would take them to another room and murder them.
Intercut through this sequence, we get flashbacks to moments before this night that showcase is sociopathic tendency. We also get the aftermath, Speck on the run, and the detective that is tracking him down. Divoff plays Jack Whitaker, an intense detective who becomes highly motivated to track down Speck. Running a bit of opposition is Tony Todd as Whitaker's captain, who needs to put this to bed quickly in the face of the Chicago riots. All of these elements tie together to create a pastiche that flows as easily as it is offputting.
One of the biggest biggest problems I had with the movie are all of the flashes, flash forward, backwards, sideways, it was just a bit much. At any given moment it took a minute or two to orient myself to know if this was before or after the massacre. I found it to be a detriment to the flow of the film as a narrative. On the level of visual flow, I have to give credit where credit is due, there is a nice flow to the imagery.
Chicago Massacre is a low budget outing that makes the most of what it has. Corin Nemec delivers a menacing performance as Speck. Odd casting, bringing in the guy best known for Parker Lewis Can't Lose into the role of an insane sociopath, but it works. All of the women who are either victims or simply have run-ins with Speck all sell really well, they buy into the role, and the deliver a realistic terror to the film. On the technical side of the coin, there are a lot of nice looking shots and angles, much better than you would expect for a low budget film. There is a very noirish look to it that works to its advantage.
On the bad side, and this is not without its badside, there are plenty of aspects that just don't work. Technically, there is a lot of darkness in this movie, and some of it just gets too dark, to the point of obscuring detail and hurting the overall image. Second, some of the dialogue is low and mumbled making it hard to understand, and the disk does not have English subtitles. Performance-wise, Todd and Divoff are both wasted. Both actors can bring such great presence to a role, but if the material doesn't work for them it shows. It seems like they were trying to play up the noir/hard boiled aspect with the dialogue, and just sounded flat and unconvincing. There are other moments of dialogue that don't ring true.
The movie ends with Speck behind bars, living like a king, sort of. You may also notice something odd about his physical appearance, supposedly, Speck had female hormones smuggled in that he would take, which had a change on his appearance. The guy truly was the trash of society. He died in 1991 of a heart attack.
Audio/Video. Not to bad, but not too good either. The audio is clear of noise, but it is low and hard to make out at times without turning up your volume. Video, anamorphic 16:9 widescreen, is free of artifacts and halos, but is dark and hard to make out detail in a number of shots, which may be more due to the source.
Extras. There are two deleted scenes, neither of which add much to the movie, a couple of stills, and a trailer gallery (no trailers for this movie). There is a pretty good commentary track with Corin Nemec and writer/director Michael Feifer.
Bottomline. Not a good movie, but not a bad one either. There are some decent performances, some nice cinematography, and an overall creepy atmosphere. It is let down by some poor technical aspects, dialogue, and a couple of wasted performances. This is a movie that is really only for those who love true crime films, or want to see another side to Nemec. Worth a rental but nothing more.
Mildly Recommended.
0 comments:
Post a Comment