Sometimes my interest in movies about psychopaths really wastes my time. The Barber speculates that Washington state's Green River Killer was a British barber (Malcolm Macdowell) who after killing a hell of a lot of women near Seattle moved to a town near the Arctic circle where it's dark half the year & after 20 years he decides to go on another killing rampage.
Since there's no airport strip lined with prostitutes, this time he just kills whoever he can, & in a town with a population of 75 he's not even a suspect. All the mayhem occurs off screen so it's certainly of no interest as grand guinole horror. There is no real mystery either, & the supposed cleverness of how the killer sets up the town sheriff is unfortunate for the sheriff but not much upon which to base an alleged mystery or thriller.
I couldn't have believed the Green River Killer was a suave well-spoken elderly British dude even if I didn't know he was in real life precisely the geeky greasy piece of white trash everyone expected someone who preyed on streetwalkers would inevitably have been. And the film's supposedly "surprise" ending that he got away with it & moved on to new territory yet again would not have been very effective even if the real guy wasn't already sitting in prison for the rest of his life with only his memories to see him through.
Malcolm's good acting can't save a dull script, & the pretention toward cynicism in this smily-button show is more like a Disney ride called Cynical & by no means the real thing.
I was told this was going to succeed where Dentist (1996) failed & I should give it a try, but what was that dumb tard watching. This is the tamest portrait of a psycho I've ever seen, & even the campy Dentist is a better film.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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