Like I had expected, this turned out to be a fairly ordinary film. However, some good performances and some tense scenes did help to make this a decent time-killer. Really, this was little more than a barrage of needless violence, but for what it was, it wasn't too bad. That having been said, I have a feeling that this film will quickly fade from my memory, since a routine plot makes the movie seem slow during the times that innocent people aren't being attacked.
10 Reviews
great movie
bwoodspmsabw12 April 2015
I have looked for this movie many times. I recall seeing it 20 plus years ago and that image stayed in my mind. The brutality of the way they killed this family. I had sleepless nights and now I want too view it again. This poor country southern family were killed in cold blood. It had an impact on me. I can't think of any movie that effected me like murder one. It's based on a true story, it was on the local news. This was real! I know I was a different person then. So I'm looking forward to seeing it again........ It's like something you have looked for years and finally find it. It was compelling and sickening at the same time. However it was true. After I see it I Wanna find out what happened to those that killed them. It seems like they lived in a small country house or........ A trailer. Yes a trailer I think. Monsters is what they are or were.
true events were gruesome but this flick dull
trashgang13 June 2013
Being a horror buff I also follow the life of mass murderers and serial killers. Let this flick being based on a true event about brothers killing a few people on a farm.
Sadly it just didn't work out as I thought it should have. It was boring as hell. It was slow and the killings were laughable. Look how the old men on a bed was shot and even later supposed to be dead he's still breathing. And the girl being raped, what the hell was that. So laughable how she was screaming even when the rape stopped. It should get you by the throat because when the two brothers escape from prison and go back home to pick up their guns their youngest brother Billy ,only 15, agrees to go with them not knowing they are on a killing spree.
It all looked so tame and dull but the real events weren't. Not what I thought it would deliver...
Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5
Sadly it just didn't work out as I thought it should have. It was boring as hell. It was slow and the killings were laughable. Look how the old men on a bed was shot and even later supposed to be dead he's still breathing. And the girl being raped, what the hell was that. So laughable how she was screaming even when the rape stopped. It should get you by the throat because when the two brothers escape from prison and go back home to pick up their guns their youngest brother Billy ,only 15, agrees to go with them not knowing they are on a killing spree.
It all looked so tame and dull but the real events weren't. Not what I thought it would deliver...
Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5
Fact-based movie about brutal killings in Georgia in 1973
dbdukes7 May 2003
The characters and incidents depicted in the movie are all too real. Carl Isaacs was executed May 6, 2003 for his role in the 1973 murders. There are discrepancies that always arise when trying to tell a true story, but the basic facts are there. The murders in the movie are brutal and senseless. The actual murders were just that. Still, the movie rates no more than a 5 out of 10. Better than much fare found on TV, but not much better.
As a southwest Georgian, not impressed
swgaboy20035 November 2006
I grew up 20 miles from where those murders were committed. I am anti-death penalty. But if anyone ever deserved to be executed, it was Carl Isaacs. He and his friends murdered 5 unsuspecting men and 1 pregnant woman who was also raped her and left her to die in an ant bed. All were members of the Alday family of Seminole Co., GA.
Even into the late 1980's (the murders took place in 1973), he said that the only way the Aldays "stood out" was "being killed by me." His frequent use of descriptions like "rednecks" and "backwoods" to describe the innocent and unsuspecting people that he and his friends murdered as well as their survivors, only added to salt to the deep wounds of an entire community. For 30 years, through appeals, not on grounds of innocence but on technicalities, a town of 2,800 people was forced to continue to pay for administrative costs during the many court procedures introduced on behalf of an admitted and unrepentant murderer. Meanwhile, because the men of the family were all executed by Isaacs and his gang, the surviving widows and children saw their lives fall into bankruptcy because they couldn't farm their land alone. For them, the pain of those events from that night lasted not just that one night, but for 30 years.
This movie's depiction of local people played right into Carl's description. Instead of showing good, decent, honest, hard-working, community-building people, they show a goober type of fellow waving stupidly from a tractor as a Isaacs and his gang drove by.
The movie doesn't spend much time on the Aldays, the only innocent people in this movie. Instead, it almost seems to invite sympathy for people who either murdered and raped or served as accomplices to all crimes committed on that fateful night.
Even into the late 1980's (the murders took place in 1973), he said that the only way the Aldays "stood out" was "being killed by me." His frequent use of descriptions like "rednecks" and "backwoods" to describe the innocent and unsuspecting people that he and his friends murdered as well as their survivors, only added to salt to the deep wounds of an entire community. For 30 years, through appeals, not on grounds of innocence but on technicalities, a town of 2,800 people was forced to continue to pay for administrative costs during the many court procedures introduced on behalf of an admitted and unrepentant murderer. Meanwhile, because the men of the family were all executed by Isaacs and his gang, the surviving widows and children saw their lives fall into bankruptcy because they couldn't farm their land alone. For them, the pain of those events from that night lasted not just that one night, but for 30 years.
This movie's depiction of local people played right into Carl's description. Instead of showing good, decent, honest, hard-working, community-building people, they show a goober type of fellow waving stupidly from a tractor as a Isaacs and his gang drove by.
The movie doesn't spend much time on the Aldays, the only innocent people in this movie. Instead, it almost seems to invite sympathy for people who either murdered and raped or served as accomplices to all crimes committed on that fateful night.
Movie D.O.A. on release.
mark.waltz31 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I tolerated "In Cold Blood" because of Truman Capite's brilliant script and Richard Brooks' solid direction, but in the case of this independent Canadian film about a real life killing spree, there's nothing good about the script, the direction or the performances. I was left cold instantly by the narration of Henry Thomas at the beginning and throughout the film which is supposed to give you some sort of sympathy for the perpetrators of this real-life crime. It took place six years after the release of the 1967 classic crime drama and fifteen years after it took place, this movie came out. 15 years after the movie came out, the main culprit and perpetrator (James Wilder as Carl Isaacs) got the death penalty through lethal injection. Perhaps sometimes real-life crime shouldn't be given homage as a movie, and real life criminals shouldn't become subjects of films that are released to the general public. It's not just say that things like this could be censored, but they shouldn't be made folk heroes either.
The four people involved in this crime spree (two half brothers who escaped from prison with another inmate, joining forces with the younger brother on the outside) have no right to be remembered through the permanent art form of celluloid. This is a propulsive film from start to finish that I only give a higher rating to because of production qualities, certainly not through the script, direction or performances. It's amateurish in many ways with the exception of the filming and good use of location footage. But it's hard to watch what these creeps do, and it's done in a very exploitive way, not with heart and not with a real purpose of exposing the creatures that these vile people were in human form or especially to give solice to the survivors of those whose lives were cut short. Perhaps if they had waited until Wilder's character got the shot that ended his life there would be more purpose to this being made.
The four people involved in this crime spree (two half brothers who escaped from prison with another inmate, joining forces with the younger brother on the outside) have no right to be remembered through the permanent art form of celluloid. This is a propulsive film from start to finish that I only give a higher rating to because of production qualities, certainly not through the script, direction or performances. It's amateurish in many ways with the exception of the filming and good use of location footage. But it's hard to watch what these creeps do, and it's done in a very exploitive way, not with heart and not with a real purpose of exposing the creatures that these vile people were in human form or especially to give solice to the survivors of those whose lives were cut short. Perhaps if they had waited until Wilder's character got the shot that ended his life there would be more purpose to this being made.
A grim, brutal and disturbing crime drama sleeper
Woodyanders3 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Rural Georgia in the early 70's. Passive teenager Billy Isaac (a solid performance by Henry Thomas of "E.T." fame) aimlessly tags along with his brooding, edgy no-count criminal sociopath brother Chris Isaac (a frighteningly intense James Wilder), Chris' angry, volatile half brother low-life cohort Wayne Coleman (chillingly played by Stephen Shellen), and their jolly dimwit pal George Dungee (the excellent Errol Slue) on an abrupt and senseless crime and killing spree which culminates in the horrible massacre of six members of the Alday family. Adroitly directed in a stark, gritty, no-frills semi-documentary style by Graeme Campbell, with a terse, compact script by Fleming B. Fuller, an unsparingly bleak, fatalistic tone, crisp, unadorned cinematography by Ludek Bogner, credible low-key acting from a fine non-star cast, a twangy, moody score by Mychael Danna, a harsh depiction of hoodlums as dumb, mean and thoroughly unappealing idiots, and shocking outbursts of nasty, ugly and upsetting violence, this grim and disturbing crime drama packs a very strong punch right to the gut. The tight, spare, stripped-down quality of the picture substantially adds to its overall harrowing plausibility (it's based on a true story). An unjustly forgotten and underrated mean'n'lean thriller.
A Mediocre Depiction of a True Story
LadyCeara3 July 2004
A mediocre portrayal (script, acting, etc.) of the Alday murders in Georgia.
Here is a timeline of the true story:
Alday family murders
May 5, 1973 Carl Issacs, Wayne Coleman and George Dungee escape from Maryland State Prison. They pick up Billy Issacs, Carl's 15 year-old brother
May 10, 1973 Richard Miller is abducted in McConnellsburg, PA. He is murdered in Allegheny County, MD.
May 14, 1973 Carl Issacs, Billy Issacs, and Wayne Coleman enter the Alday home in Seminole County (Donalsonville), Georgia looking for money and guns. The Maryland work camp escapees kill Jerry Alday, his father Ned, two brothers and an uncle. Jerry's wife Mary, who had witnessed some of the killing, was forced into a car and raped repeatedly before she was killed.
May 15, 1973 The body of Mary Alday is discovered.
May 17, 1973 On the day that the Alday family is buried, West Virginia police capture George Dungee, first of the Issacs gang to fall into custody.
May 18, 1973 West Virginia police capture Carl Issacs, Billy Issacs and Wayne Coleman
December 31, 1973 Jury selection begins in Seminole County for Carl Issacs. The racially mixed jury has six women.
January 2, 1974 Carl Issacs goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
January 6, 1974 George Dungee goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
January 14, 1974 Wayne Coleman goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
July 28, 1980 Carl Issacs plans to escape, along with four other inmates. He is moved to a new "Death Row," foiling his attempt, but 4 other men succeed. Three are recaptured 4 days later in North Carolina, the fourth dead at the hands of his fellow escapees
December 9, 1985 3 judge panel finds that pretrial publicity about the Alday family murders made a fair trial virtually impossible in Seminole County
June 3, 1986 Supreme Court orders a new trial in the Alday family murders
September 9, 1988 Murder One, a movie based on the Alday family murders starring Henry Thomas and James Wilder, shot almost entirely in Toronto, Canada, opens to mixed reviews
June 28, 1990 U.S. Supreme Court rejects Carl Issac's appeal of second death sentence
February 18, 1993 Billy Issacs released from Georgia prison
April 21, 2003 U.S. Supreme Court upholds Carl Issac's death sentence
May 6, 2003 The man who orchestrated the Alday Family murders, Carl Isaacs, is put to death by lethal injection. At the time he had been on death row longer than any other person.
Here is a timeline of the true story:
Alday family murders
May 5, 1973 Carl Issacs, Wayne Coleman and George Dungee escape from Maryland State Prison. They pick up Billy Issacs, Carl's 15 year-old brother
May 10, 1973 Richard Miller is abducted in McConnellsburg, PA. He is murdered in Allegheny County, MD.
May 14, 1973 Carl Issacs, Billy Issacs, and Wayne Coleman enter the Alday home in Seminole County (Donalsonville), Georgia looking for money and guns. The Maryland work camp escapees kill Jerry Alday, his father Ned, two brothers and an uncle. Jerry's wife Mary, who had witnessed some of the killing, was forced into a car and raped repeatedly before she was killed.
May 15, 1973 The body of Mary Alday is discovered.
May 17, 1973 On the day that the Alday family is buried, West Virginia police capture George Dungee, first of the Issacs gang to fall into custody.
May 18, 1973 West Virginia police capture Carl Issacs, Billy Issacs and Wayne Coleman
December 31, 1973 Jury selection begins in Seminole County for Carl Issacs. The racially mixed jury has six women.
January 2, 1974 Carl Issacs goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
January 6, 1974 George Dungee goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
January 14, 1974 Wayne Coleman goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
July 28, 1980 Carl Issacs plans to escape, along with four other inmates. He is moved to a new "Death Row," foiling his attempt, but 4 other men succeed. Three are recaptured 4 days later in North Carolina, the fourth dead at the hands of his fellow escapees
December 9, 1985 3 judge panel finds that pretrial publicity about the Alday family murders made a fair trial virtually impossible in Seminole County
June 3, 1986 Supreme Court orders a new trial in the Alday family murders
September 9, 1988 Murder One, a movie based on the Alday family murders starring Henry Thomas and James Wilder, shot almost entirely in Toronto, Canada, opens to mixed reviews
June 28, 1990 U.S. Supreme Court rejects Carl Issac's appeal of second death sentence
February 18, 1993 Billy Issacs released from Georgia prison
April 21, 2003 U.S. Supreme Court upholds Carl Issac's death sentence
May 6, 2003 The man who orchestrated the Alday Family murders, Carl Isaacs, is put to death by lethal injection. At the time he had been on death row longer than any other person.
Rang a bell
splat999 January 2003
I found this movie interesting for one primary reason: I am 99% sure it depicts a real event. I went to college in Atlanta, Georgia in the early 1980's, and sometime (I'd guess 1982) in that span, the local news covered this real incident, which I think happened in the 1960's. It had become a current issue in 1982 because the perpetrators were still behind bars, and I think the debate over the death penalty was involved. From what I remember of both the actual event and the movie, it follows the true story reasonably well. I certainly got the impression that the incident was a gruesome as the movie depicts it.
reply to comments
SuzzieQue15 January 2007
i have yet to see the movie, but i must reply to some of the previous comments. the people portrayed in the movie are my family. and as for "needless violence"-these people were needlessly murdered. Mary was forced to watch her family die. she was raped. she was lead to believe she was being let go and then shot in the back. i don't know how the movie goes, i don't know how the book goes. but i know they were all brutally murdered and i can guarantee you all that if those bastards ever escape jail again, they will be murdered themselves... people are still extremely upset about what happened and believe that justice has not been served...
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
