BTK: Bind, Torture, Kill Review

I’m not sure what it is about Hollywood and taking real life monsters and adapting their lives to screen in a fictional setting, but they just love doing it. Just about every serial killer in history who’s mass murdered more than five people has found his way into stardom through a grisly retelling of his life. Dahmer, Bundy, Ed Gein, and now, you can through BTK into the mix. The film is admittedly low budget, but it does play out like a TV true crime thriller, but perhaps showing more than you’d let your children watch.

The role is played by Kane Hodder and might as well have been taken from any generic horror slasher film. Hell, put a hocky mask on him and call him Jason if you please. Hodder plays an effective family man at the beginning of the film, taking care of his loving wife and his two teenage daughters. He’s a dog catcher in his Wichita community, which means he’s only a few steps above a rent-a-cop. The dark side to Hodder’s character is the fact that he’s a sick bastard who’s been slowly torturing and killing people for around thirty years, with his targets largely young women and hookers. After benig named the president of his local Church, BTK becomes frustrated and decides to take action at the slowness of the media in solving his connecting the dots concerning his killing spree.

The performance is done nicely, especially considering how two personalities must be shown with perfection. Hodder is able to pull off a convincing polite and anal officer who keeps the neighborhood safe from petty law violations and makes us forget all about his darker side. He easily slips into the roll of the hooker-killing brutal psycho. Because of his size, Hodder is even more frightening without the hockey mask, as this time, you see the face behind the murders, even if they’re only connected by the person who played them.

While Hodder’s performance is a great one, it’s still not enough to bring the half hearted attempts at a split personality film to reign in higher on the “Gee, this is a pretty good movie chart.” In fact, the movie wraps up rather funnily in scenes where Hodder’s family discovers the truth. Such poorly scripted lines as “But… you’re the leader of the boy scouts!” and from his daughter, “He never once helped me do my homework…” It’s not hard to see why this film won’t be higher up on people’s watch lists. If you’re a die hard horror or slasher film fan, this one might be for you, but it’s utterly passable for those who enjoy good acting and even better scripts.