Couple of "off the beaten track" serial killer movies for you to see

[Lexmark3200]

Silence of the Lambs is usually the first one most think of when serial killer movies crop up but I've seen one recently and bought one I had seen before that may have been overlooked.

The first is an HBO special called Citizen X based on a true story of a Russian serial killer in Soviet Russia. The film is focused on a forensics expert(Stephen Rea) who has been put in charge of an investigation when several children turn up dead. The movie is about the difficulties Rea goes through just to get government support (as one bureaucrat notes "We don''t have serial killers in Russia - that is a Western Phenomenon.") Rea is trying to get help from experts in the FBI but battles with the Russian Elite to admit that there is a child killer on the loose. The film has depth as we get to know both the detective and the serial killer to haunting depths and the sense of frustration being imposed by a government trying to save face than save children.

The Film Stars Stephen Rea and Donald Sutherland and is thoroughly enjoyable.


The other film is Atom Egoyan's Felicia's Journey starring Bob Hoskins - My choice for best actor in 1999 - typical of Egoyan's films, character is placed above plot - and we get a wholly realized serial killer as well as Felicia(outstanding performance from Elaine Cassidy) who has the misfortune to meet Joseph Hilditch(Hoskins). The Hoskins character is more believeable than the Fun but shallow Hannibal Lecter.

There is a slow boiling uneasiness about Hoskins and an Oedipus psychology intertwined like a curtling of the milk of his twisted mind. Both actors are a treat as their lives are pitiable - the performances are bang on like a well constructed and musical dance. It's intelligent - only a slight contrivance toward the end crops up but can be forgiven in lieu of its plausability. IMO this is a vastly superior film to Silence of the Lambs - Felicia's Journey is more believable, more intricate, smarter, and yes even better acted than Silence. It is also an eerily creepy film - which frees itself from melodrama and falls into the modern tragedy camp. This was one of the best films of the 1990's - arguably along with Citizen X that if you like this subject matter are some to rent.

Most remember The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica as Egoyan's best films, but Felicia's Journey is right there and I like this one best.

Oh, what, you mean no mention of Michael Myers, Fred Kreuger, Jason Voorhees or Pinhead in your roundup of serial killers to be considered? LOL. J/K.

[RGA]

The first Halloween was excellent and I enjoyed the first Nightmare on Elm Street. The Jason movies and the Hellraiser's you can trash compact - but that wouldn't kill them.

[Lexmark3200]

The first Halloween was excellent and I enjoyed the first Nightmare on Elm Street. The Jason movies and the Hellraiser's you can trash compact - but that wouldn't kill them.

Agreed about Halloween; in my opinion, the best example of the genre ever made...and even moreso with Carpenter's classic score. One of the defining horror/thrillers IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA, no matter what anyone says. I have the Nightmare box set, and I enjoy just about every one of them....and, unlike yourself, I love the Friday the 13ths....waiting for that box collection to arrive this fall, with all eight Paramount owned films, which will be called "Friday the 13th -- From Crystal Lake to Manhattan."