Chicago Massacre – Richard Speck (2007/DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Feature: C-
At first,
wrier/director Michael Feifer’s Chicago
Massacre – Richard Speck (2007) began with some promise, tasking its time
to tell the story of the infamous serial killer who loved murdering
nurses. Unfortunately, when it gets to
that actual point, it is more like a murder movie with no point wallowing in
its violence. Though it never reaches
the quasi-snuff level, it is bad and Corin Nemec was not doing badly as the
title character.
Too bad
they all got carried away when they should have been more clever and
restrained, the way they started out. A
great film about Speck is possible and this could have been it. Too bad it folds very early.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and the attempt to do dark stylizing does not
work. Matt Steinauer’s camerawork is
just not distinctive enough to help the narrative, which collapses anyhow. Despite Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 with
surrounds, the best way to play back the sound is in two-channel 2.0 because
the other modes shrink the sound. Extras
include trailers, stills, deleted scenes of no consequence and audio commentary
by Feifer and Nemec.
- Nicholas Sheffo
