Sxottlan
11-14-2008, 10:05 AM
http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/anchor_bay/the_alphabet_killer/thealphabetkiller_galleryposte r.jpg
"The best thing you can do is leave Rochester."
When the movies coming out of my town are like this, I can see why that would be good advice. The Alphabet Killer is the latest high profile film to be shot in Rochester, New York (a couple co-workers of mine helped the production). Unfortunately, it's also the latest dour, super-serious thriller to be shot in Rochester as well. Certainly the film has probably the best cast of any production to come to the Flower City, but all involved are bound by a cliche-ridden script and color palette that just wants you to put a gun in your mouth.
Loosely based on the Double Initial murders in the Rochester area back in the 1970's, girls with the same initials are found dead in towns beginning with the same letter. We're introduced to the main character, Detective Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku), as she surveys the first murder scene. Right away, Megan starts seeing things, beginning a litany of the usual Gotcha! scare moments, only a few of which are actually effective. Right away Megan gets obsessive with the case which, while later explained, just starts things off on the wrong and unintentionally funny foot.
Turns out Megan develops schizophrenia at a later age than usual. So really, the film shifts only after the first murder to really being about Megan and her attempts to cope. She attends group sessions, although why there's a group session for schizophrenia is kind of beyond me. I thought that was more a thing for addicts.
Anyway, quite awhile passes and then another victim turns up, then another. Aha! A pattern emerges, one that Megan pegged after the first murder but was then of course scoffed at. So despite her history, she's put back on the case by her captain (Cary Elwes). At least the film tries to explain his letting her get away with things by creating a past history between them.
The usual thrills and spills follow.
There are times when The Alphabet Killer makes a genuine effort. Conversations between cops feel genuine. Megan fights with her new partner, but he hears her out when she has a lead. They develop a working relationship. She makes an advance on him, but they immediately talk about it and resolve it.
At other times, the script stretches things, such as in a third act detour into a stand-off where cops open fire for no apparent reason. Megan turns violent and runs from the hospital and like many poorly made thrillers, the cops conveniently disappear for the rest of the film.
Also, the schizophrenia angle simply isn't needed. Just more of an excuse to bring some horror elements into the picture. Perhaps it's just a matter of timing, but The Alphabet Killer comes off like a poor copy of David Fincher's recent masterpiece, Zodiac. There too police obsess over unsolved murder cases, but unlike that film, this movie feels the need to punch up audience interest with visual gags to externalize that obsession. I also found it a little disrespectful to the actual victims to see their progressively rotting ghosts stalk Megan, especially in increasingly outlandish outfits like in the climax.
Some of the actors appear game, but the film is also hampered by some badly acted scenes. Perhaps director Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn) wasn't up to the challenge. It really is an impressive cast with supporting work by Tom Noonan, Michael Ironside, Melissa Leo and Timothy Hutton. It just doesn't really add to much of anything. One scene with a grieving father came off as almost comical while many other scenes fell flat.
Flat is a pretty good word for the movie. I don't think I've ever seen as drab a film as this in a long time. It's almost entirely drained of color. That could very well be an intentional choice, but it makes the film a bore to watch. A couple of shots do approach a stark beauty, but not many. Art direction in a few places is really spotty (one of the victims' rooms doesn't look like a girl ever lived there). One of the film's few visual flourishes comes in the appearance of the ghosts, but even then it feels like the movie is heavily borrowing from Guillermo Del Toro's film, The Devil's Backbone.
While I'm glad another film shot in the Rochester area looks to be getting a wide release (finally; they originally said this was supposed to be out a year ago), the way the town is depicted almost makes me think twice about it. A former flour mill and then industrial center, the city is desperate for a new identity. It's kind of hard with images of our downtown waterfall surrounded by industrial ruin as a site for the killer to dump his latest victim.
Even more so, I'm disturbed at a trend I'm noticing. Pretty much all of the major films to be made in our area involve child murder. Not exactly a genre you want your town to be known for, especially since we already have the highest murder rate in the state according to population density. There has been this film and eight years ago, After Image (which I worked on) and back in the 80's, Lady in White, the one film from our area to make any kind of real impact with a national audience. Indeed it deserved to. It was a genuinely creepy and at times terrifying film. It also had memorable, if broad, characters and a sense of warmth, heart and humor even though yes, it involved children in peril. They are three things missing from After Image and The Alphabet Killer.
That all of these films were created by people from around here creates an interesting coincidence. Is this how we see ourselves here? Hope and innocence just stomped out of us? Dead children usually invoke, cheaply I might add, a lot of guilt in a film. And all of these films involve Catholic imagery in some manner. A lot of childhood angst being worked out here by local filmmakers Greg Polisseni, Robert Manganelli and Frank LaLoggia? I don't know, but it's interesting.
It's a shame the more lighthearted movies made around here don't get wider releases. Rochester does have a little film industry on the edge of becoming something and it'd be great to see it blossom. However, like the poster for The Alphabet Killer shows, this recent example of Rochester filmmaking is more dessicated and fallen from the tree.
The film is going wider soon. I hate to say it, but I say skip it. We're capable of doing better.
"The best thing you can do is leave Rochester."
When the movies coming out of my town are like this, I can see why that would be good advice. The Alphabet Killer is the latest high profile film to be shot in Rochester, New York (a couple co-workers of mine helped the production). Unfortunately, it's also the latest dour, super-serious thriller to be shot in Rochester as well. Certainly the film has probably the best cast of any production to come to the Flower City, but all involved are bound by a cliche-ridden script and color palette that just wants you to put a gun in your mouth.
Loosely based on the Double Initial murders in the Rochester area back in the 1970's, girls with the same initials are found dead in towns beginning with the same letter. We're introduced to the main character, Detective Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku), as she surveys the first murder scene. Right away, Megan starts seeing things, beginning a litany of the usual Gotcha! scare moments, only a few of which are actually effective. Right away Megan gets obsessive with the case which, while later explained, just starts things off on the wrong and unintentionally funny foot.
Turns out Megan develops schizophrenia at a later age than usual. So really, the film shifts only after the first murder to really being about Megan and her attempts to cope. She attends group sessions, although why there's a group session for schizophrenia is kind of beyond me. I thought that was more a thing for addicts.
Anyway, quite awhile passes and then another victim turns up, then another. Aha! A pattern emerges, one that Megan pegged after the first murder but was then of course scoffed at. So despite her history, she's put back on the case by her captain (Cary Elwes). At least the film tries to explain his letting her get away with things by creating a past history between them.
The usual thrills and spills follow.
There are times when The Alphabet Killer makes a genuine effort. Conversations between cops feel genuine. Megan fights with her new partner, but he hears her out when she has a lead. They develop a working relationship. She makes an advance on him, but they immediately talk about it and resolve it.
At other times, the script stretches things, such as in a third act detour into a stand-off where cops open fire for no apparent reason. Megan turns violent and runs from the hospital and like many poorly made thrillers, the cops conveniently disappear for the rest of the film.
Also, the schizophrenia angle simply isn't needed. Just more of an excuse to bring some horror elements into the picture. Perhaps it's just a matter of timing, but The Alphabet Killer comes off like a poor copy of David Fincher's recent masterpiece, Zodiac. There too police obsess over unsolved murder cases, but unlike that film, this movie feels the need to punch up audience interest with visual gags to externalize that obsession. I also found it a little disrespectful to the actual victims to see their progressively rotting ghosts stalk Megan, especially in increasingly outlandish outfits like in the climax.
Some of the actors appear game, but the film is also hampered by some badly acted scenes. Perhaps director Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn) wasn't up to the challenge. It really is an impressive cast with supporting work by Tom Noonan, Michael Ironside, Melissa Leo and Timothy Hutton. It just doesn't really add to much of anything. One scene with a grieving father came off as almost comical while many other scenes fell flat.
Flat is a pretty good word for the movie. I don't think I've ever seen as drab a film as this in a long time. It's almost entirely drained of color. That could very well be an intentional choice, but it makes the film a bore to watch. A couple of shots do approach a stark beauty, but not many. Art direction in a few places is really spotty (one of the victims' rooms doesn't look like a girl ever lived there). One of the film's few visual flourishes comes in the appearance of the ghosts, but even then it feels like the movie is heavily borrowing from Guillermo Del Toro's film, The Devil's Backbone.
While I'm glad another film shot in the Rochester area looks to be getting a wide release (finally; they originally said this was supposed to be out a year ago), the way the town is depicted almost makes me think twice about it. A former flour mill and then industrial center, the city is desperate for a new identity. It's kind of hard with images of our downtown waterfall surrounded by industrial ruin as a site for the killer to dump his latest victim.
Even more so, I'm disturbed at a trend I'm noticing. Pretty much all of the major films to be made in our area involve child murder. Not exactly a genre you want your town to be known for, especially since we already have the highest murder rate in the state according to population density. There has been this film and eight years ago, After Image (which I worked on) and back in the 80's, Lady in White, the one film from our area to make any kind of real impact with a national audience. Indeed it deserved to. It was a genuinely creepy and at times terrifying film. It also had memorable, if broad, characters and a sense of warmth, heart and humor even though yes, it involved children in peril. They are three things missing from After Image and The Alphabet Killer.
That all of these films were created by people from around here creates an interesting coincidence. Is this how we see ourselves here? Hope and innocence just stomped out of us? Dead children usually invoke, cheaply I might add, a lot of guilt in a film. And all of these films involve Catholic imagery in some manner. A lot of childhood angst being worked out here by local filmmakers Greg Polisseni, Robert Manganelli and Frank LaLoggia? I don't know, but it's interesting.
It's a shame the more lighthearted movies made around here don't get wider releases. Rochester does have a little film industry on the edge of becoming something and it'd be great to see it blossom. However, like the poster for The Alphabet Killer shows, this recent example of Rochester filmmaking is more dessicated and fallen from the tree.
The film is going wider soon. I hate to say it, but I say skip it. We're capable of doing better.