The Alphabet Killer (2008) User Reviews

Predictable, not Schmidt's Best Work

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 11 January 2009]

Detective Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku) is tracking down a serial killer who finds girls with twin initials and dumps them in a city with the same beginning letter (such as Kelly Kapowski in Kingston). But when she gets too attached to the case, she suffers a mental breakdown. When the killings continue, can she overcome her problems to stop him from striking again?

I thought the film would be a pretty decent one... the concept was interesting, even if the movie strays quite a bit from the real events this was based on. And the cast is impressive. Dushku is pretty amazing, Cary Elwes is one of my all-time favorite actors, Timothy Hutton is here, Michael Ironside, and genre fave Bill Moseley. So you can't beat this ensemble cast.

But sadly, it just didn't add up for me. It was predictable (even the "twist" seemed obvious from early on) and not as engaging as one might think. It wasn't even as good as another recent murder / detective story I reviewed, "Anamorph" (which was itself not all that amazing). I've been a fan of Rob Schmidt's work, especially "Right to Die" and thought he'd be a good person to bring a dark angle to this story. Sadly, not so much... clichés such as a child-obsessed priest appear, and some (presumably imaginary) ghosts that don't really add to the film.

I wouldn't say not to watch this one, but it wasn't gripping. There isn't one thing I can pinpoint as making this film stand out -- not the music, the lighting, the effects... it was all pretty standard. It almost would have been more fitting for a Lifetime movie. As far as serial killers go, this one comes off as remarkably tame. If you want your psyche thrilled, look somewhere else.

Average at best.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 25 March 2015]

This viewer is not surprised to learn that this rather pedestrian murder mystery / thriller is based *very* loosely on a real life string of unsolved killings in the Rochester, NY area. Too many of the characters are rather standard issue for this sort of thing, and the story (credited to co-star Tom Malloy, who plays cop Steven Harper) doesn't exactly go out of its way to be credible. While it's somewhat commendable to have a main character who's struggling mightily with their own mental illness, it's too hard to root for her most of the time. She blatantly goes ahead and does things that she's been ordered not to do, although of course we in the audience know that the crimes won't be solved unless she indulges in this behaviour. There's an over abundance of lazy cops here that are happy with pat answers.

Eliza Dushku, who'd acted for director Rob Schmidt in the horror feature "Wrong Turn", is front and centre as Megan Paige, a young detective who's had some success due to the way she obsesses over cases. However, a bout with schizophrenia does her no favours as she attempts to solve a series of murders. The monster responsible has come up with this gimmick of slaughtering little girls with double initials (W.W., as in Wendy Walsh, for example) and dumping their bodies in towns with the same initial (Webster, in this case). Her colleague and former lover, Kenneth Shine (Cary Elwes) reluctantly lets her return to the case even after she's made a suicide attempt.

There's a number of solid and familiar performers here - Timothy Hutton, Michael Ironside, Bill Moseley, Carl Lumbly, Larry Hankin, Jack McGee, Melissa Leo, Tom Noonan, Martin Donovan - and some of these people get an A for effort. But there's not that much they can do with basically third rate material. Dushku is a lovely woman, but not an overly talented actress. Still, she deserves some credit: she tries as hard as she can. The filmmaking is basically adequate, and there's a rather drab look to "The Alphabet Killer", with not that much in the way of strong colours. The ending offers up the kind of twist that, if you didn't predict it early on, you'll likely scold yourself (as this viewer did) for not seeing it coming.

Six out of 10. (The supporting cast raises the rating a notch.)

Standard serial killer fare

[hall895 · 6/10 · 17 October 2013]

The Alphabet Killer is based very, very loosely on a real story. But screenwriter Tom Malloy pretty much made this story entirely his own. The basic facts of the case are that there once was a killer whose victims were young girls whose first and last names started with the same letter. And that killer dumped the bodies in towns with names beginning with that same letter. For example this film's first victim is Carla Castillo, found in Churchville. Where does this movie want to go from there? Well, it turns out not to really be about the killer but about the young detective investigating the crime, Megan Paige. Eliza Dushku plays the role and the movie was always going to sink or swim on her performance. Dushku just about manages to keep the film afloat.

The film veers toward the supernatural and/or psychological as Megan Paige begins to be haunted by visions. Is she really seeing things or just losing her mind? She ends up having a nervous breakdown and losing her position as a detective, demoted to a desk job. But when the bodies of more young girls turn up, following the alphabet pattern Megan had obsessed on, she's back on the case. Her new partner, played by screenwriter Malloy himself, is understandably wary. Eventually the two bond and make some progress in the case. But the killer remains elusive and Megan will not let the case go. Her frustrations manifest themselves in more of these visions or hallucinations or whatever they are. Megan is losing it again and it's a race against time to solve the case before she goes completely crazy. And of course before the killer strikes again.

All in all it is pretty familiar serial killer stuff like we've seen in so many other films. The focus on an investigator who happens to be losing her mind is a bit of a different angle. But ultimately things play out pretty much as you would expect from the genre. Dushku performs a challenging role reasonably well. The supporting cast, including some familiar faces such as Cary Elwes and Timothy Hutton, is fine as well. But the film never threatens to make the leap from being decent to being really good. The story starts with promise but once it settles into its rhythm there is the sense that initial promise is not being paid off. The story kind of lags, things are a little mundane. They try to spice things up a bit by throwing in those haunting, sometimes scary visions of Megan's. But that gets a little repetitive and loses its impact. You know the film is going to go for a big reveal at the end but when it does the effort falls somewhat flat. The ending is actually rather predictable, not nearly as thrilling as it needs to be for the film to really excite you. Ultimately The Alphabet Killer is a decent little movie but that is about the best that can be said. Not a terrible way to spend 100 minutes but far from spectacular.

Some good effort but not much of a story.

[alven75 · 23 December 2008]

Eliza Dushku is the one who delivers in this fairly predictable serial killer story, reminiscent of such films as "Gothika" and "Jennifer Eight". There are also a lot of serial killer movie alumni populating the lesser roles of this film, like Bill Moseley, Timothy Hutton, Tom Noonan and Cary Elwes. They don't really matter though, because it's all about Dushku's character Megan Paige and her late onset schizophrenia which makes it very difficult for her to crack the case of the Alphabet killer, as well as keep the confidence of her fellow police officers.

Movies that focus on characters with mental disorders are often interesting and unpredictable, like Polanski's "Repulsion" or Fincher's "Fight Club" because they makes the audience question what's reality in the movie and what's just playing out inside the mind of the main character. Unfortunately this isn't one of those movies. Instead of trying to make the audience share in Megan's delusions, they are clearly separated and labeled to avoid any confusion, or excitement for that matter. Instead we are made to watch her from the outside and see her struggling to connect with her colleagues and convince them that she's completely sane despite her textbook "crazy person" behavior. Like I said, Dushku delivers a solid performance as a distraught, emotionally unstable and sometimes delusional police woman. It's just hard to get invested in her character because of the boring predictable story she slowly fights her way through.

There is not a single supporting character that comes off as more than some kind of one-dimensional stereotype. There's the honest cop, the crooked cop, the former lover, the one true friend, the calm doctor, the obvious suspect, the creepy priest and eventually, for a brief time at the end, the killer... non of them with any significant character development or depth. This movie isn't painful to watch and it's not poorly made, it just suffers from lack of imagination on the directors part and some sloppy writing. See it, don't see it... doesn't really matter.

Painful

[bacon_bit19 · 2/10 · 29 December 2008]

Saw the rating of 6/10 on here and decided to give this a try. Bad mistake!

I thought this was the worst serial killer movie I have ever seen. You know it's a bad sign when the serial killer seems more sane than the lead character.

The lead character was not very bright nor likable, and I spent most of the movie hoping for her demise.

Just because it's loosely based off a real life event does not mean it should become a movie.

I would NOT recommend this movie at all.

Fairly creepy, with an interesting story

[VelvetTipper · 7/10 · 6 February 2009]

I like films about killers, especially those with an interesting little story or something that makes them a bit different. The Alphabet Killer doesn't disappoint in this respect.

I'll admit, the start was pretty poor, I felt it was quite disjointed and it seemed as though a lot of scenes that should have been there to develop the plot were on the cutting-room floor. However, once we get into the middle and latter stages of the film, we definitely see a marked improvement.

I think Eliza Dushku played her role well in this, and I felt the slant of Megan's mental illness playing such a large part in the story made her character more believable, and added interest to the film.

Overall, this was a nicely put together film. It had little gore or anything really adult-themed, so if that's what you're after this isn't for you. If you want a killer movie portrayed more through the eyes of the main detective than is usual, you might like this. Yeah, you'll probably suss it out, but that's half the fun.

Utterly Unbelievable.

[write_me_here · 2/10 · 1 January 2009]

If this story is based on a true story, the only thing this story had in common with the truth was the fact that it all happened in a world not unlike the one we live in.

Police planting evidence to incriminate a person they know did not do it and therefore taking a chance to loose face if the murderer strikes again is one of the many, and sadly not the least unlikely, things that makes this movie a bad one.

This movie strings a lot of unrealistic actions together with at the top of this the miraculous recovery of a handicapped man. It was if i was watching Lou and Andy from Little Britain.

I think this movie is an insult of the real victims.

Premise Based On A Real-Life Case

[Lechuguilla · 7/10 · 15 March 2010]

This crime thriller centers on a detective named Megan (Eliza Dushku) who investigates a series of child murders in upstate New York. But Megan suffers from a mental illness, the symptoms of which get worse as she delves deeper into the killings. She hears strange voices and sees "visions" related to the victims.

With low light levels and muted colors, combined with creepy background music, the film's first half creates an effective thriller atmosphere. We see the outline of the killer, but never the face. Will Megan solve the murders and overcome her illness, or will the inept police supersede, to botch the case? As viewers, we root for Megan to succeed.

Although the script idea originates from a real-life murder case, referred to generally as the "double initial" serial killings, which terrorized upstate New York in the early 1970s, the film's overall plot and main characters are fictional. The story setting is the present, not the 1970s. The scriptwriter created the Megan character out of thin air. And the story's outcome deviates considerably from the outcome of the real-life case. The film's writer wrote a fictional plot, based on a real-life premise. The film's second half fails to convince, largely because of its clichéd plot contrivances.

Visuals consist of an annoying widescreen projection and some hokey CGI effects, in the form of "ghosts". But the low lighting contributes tension, as does some clever low-angle camera shots. And the director relies mostly on a hand-held camera, which enhances realism. Overall casting and acting are fine.

"The Alphabet Killer" gets off to a great start. But it falters in the second half, owing to fictional plot points that dilute the underlying real-life premise. I would have preferred a narrative that followed the true story, though I understand that the reason for not doing so was budget constraints. By lowering one's expectations, the viewer may find the film worthwhile, either as a fictional thriller or as a character study of a woman fighting her own demons.

There's a Hole in Your Talent...Dear Eliza, Dear Eliza

[frankenbenz · 3/10 · 5 January 2009]

http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/

If you ever cross paths with Rob Schmidt or Tom Molloy, the director and screenwriter of The Alphabet Killer, then take the opportunity to insult their intelligence, the way they did yours for claiming their movie, The Alphabet Killer, is based on a true story. This movie is so loosely based on the real Alphabet Killings, it needs both a belt AND suspenders to keep it from falling down to its ankles. Artistic license is one thing, but these two go off on such amateurish tangents, you'd swear they were first year film students desperate to impress their teachers and peers with their cleverness. Problem is, there's nothing clever about AK and if these two had any talent, it should have been the ability recognize the source material didn't need embellishment. As it is, Schmidt and Molloy's treatment is so ridiculous, all it needed to complete its film student predictability was a scene with the protagonist lying naked on the floor, in the fetal position, after suffering a mental breakdown. Oh but wait, she slashes her wrists instead! What a novel substitute.

Eliza Dushku acts her little heart out and the harder she tries, the more embarrassed you feel for her and her complete and utter lack of talent. Dusku may be eye candy, but her inability to act natural is such a distraction it even seems the other actors are staring back at her with pity. And there actually are a few talented actors in this film, but they're working with such poorly written material and are horribly misguided by Schmidt's inept, blunt-force direction. Did Timothy Hutton burn every bridge known to actors to be left with no other option but to accept a job on this shameless piece of on-the-nose garbage?

Avoid at all costs. Shutoff time: 32:14.

Hope They Catch That Killer

[GirishGowda · 7/10 · 23 May 2010]

This film is a true story and it is not a flashy film which tries to make money by the sufferings of these poor young girls. I cannot stress how much I loathe these paedophiles and rapists. I am a 20 year old guy and if I had any superpowers, I would kill every one of them. If you have read my other reviews, you will know that sometimes I feel very strongly about some issue and burst out like that. I am sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, its just who I am. I was browsing through my friend's DVD collection when I came across this and the cover was very interesting. So, I brought it over a couple of days back to see and the movie was very heart-breaking.

A 10-year-old girl, Carla Castillo is found brutally murdered outside the small city of Rochester, New York, and obsessed police detective Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku) suffers a mental breakdown while trying to solve the crime. Megan is diagnosed with adult onset of paranoid schizophrenia and her fianceé breaks of the engagement. The police department is letting the case go into cold storage as there are no leads and the murder seemed to be a dead end. But Megan is convinced that there is a serial killer who goes after children with the same initials. When the child-killings resume two years later, Megan's return to the investigation also brings back her own horrific hallucinations. The only friend she has through all her ordeal is the wheelchair bound Richard Ledge (Timothy Hutton). Even if she can prove a double initial connection to the slayings, will she hang onto her sanity long enough to catch the paedophile psychopath?

The director of 'Wrong Turn', Rob Scmidt directs 'The Alphabet Killer'. He is one director who looks very promising. He directs this film with a real reverence to the true events. Eliza Dushku gives her best here as the woman who can see the ghosts of the dead girls. The whole story revolves around her perspective of these killings and sometimes it is very confusing. Is she really schizophrenic or does she actually see those ghosts? Whatever the case maybe, those little girls really suffered from that psycho killer. I really hope that killer is brought to justice soon. The way those little girls are lured into the killer's car is very real. Many of the times, the killer will be a person who you trust. This sick guy doesn't need therapy, he deserves to die for his sins. The ending is chilling with the killer eyeing his next victim. Kenneth Shine, Tom Malloy and Timothy Hutton all give credible performances. This film can be quite traumatizing to below 16 year olds, so the R-rating is definitely deserved (there is also one scene where the beautiful Eliza gets naked, and there is also language and moderate violence, so beware).

7/10

Eliza Dushku (Megan Paige) was as distractingly B 'class' as this film.

[James-2631 · 5/10 · 4 February 2009]

Eliza Dushku (Megan Paige) was simply distracting. The film was dull with terribly stereotypical characters. Simple as that.

i just lost interest in the film. I honestly don't understand how other reviews hype Eliza's performance as 'amazing.' I was not impressed. Unfortunately, the only memorable piece of the film was her bland, unconvincing, portrayal of the lead role. She seemed confused, and noticeably self-conscious throughout the film. She is a very pretty girl, and maybe she has chops, but i'm still not confident she does yet.

If you're looking for a run-of-the-mill serial killer flick and you are easily drawn into stories despite sub-par acting.. This film may be a decent couple hours of mindless entertainment. If you are looking for anything else.... Im afraid you will not find it in this movie.

Predictable fare; but, well acted

[catfish-er · 9/10 · 1 November 2009]

I watched THE ALPHABET KILLER on Showtime last night. It is based on a true-life serial killer case in Rochester, New York. However, I'm not sure if the true events that inspired this thriller included a dogged homicide investigator who pursues a child murderer, despite suffering from schizophrenia. It's an interesting take, though.

Eliza Dushku, does an incredible job playing Megan Paige, the detective, whose condition makes her believe she can see the spirits of the victims. I found her character very sympathetic; and, quite believable.

Unfortunately, the movie was a bit predictable (even the "twist" seemed obvious to me).

not horrible, but definitely not great

[ken-stambaugh · 6/10 · 27 January 2009]

I normally am not a fan of crime movies, especially those based on reality but stretched to the extreme, and the "Alphabet Killer" is no exception. Poor acting, horrible misrepresentation of reality, inaccuracy beyond belief, and camera work that my high school journalist could have topped takes this movie to the bottom. I do, however, enjoy movies that i don't know what's going to happen five minutes into it, and that is where this movie does succeed.

I watched "Alphabet Killer" twice; once confused and then once playing the "Alphabet Killer" drinking game. Neither was incredibly enjoyable but compared to most of the films these days it was not repulsive. If you are bored and happen to have a free redbox code its worth the 2 hours for sheer enjoyment of how truly worthless cops are.

I know this is one of my less useful reviews but i really don't have much to say about this movie; that's why i watched it twice. It really isn't that bad but at the same time it's not that good. I gave it the benefit of having funny cop hating to get the 6 instead of the 4.

Waste

[sepial · 2/10 · 6 September 2014]

Stick to the facts, and you'll be half-way there. Unlike this film. It appears as if the filmmakers thought they have too little at their hands, and felt compelled to 'spice' things up by adding the story of an investigator (as so often, female, young, good-looking, yawn) who struggles with mental illness; the murders weren't solved, the essence of them appear to fit on a short Wikipedia-page, so what else can we do...? Just that it's still enough to make an interesting, haunting film-effort, the unsolved murders of three girls. Instead their legacy is insulted with this cliché-laden flick. It comes to no surprise that it'll opt for inventing a perpetrator in the end. Until then it's poor in sequence and pace, it's poor in acting, and it's poor even in using the clichés. Try and find a documentary about the case, instead.

Painful!!

[petewhittall · 3/10 · 27 July 2017]

What potentially was a good story line which i can only assume is loosely based on true events was absolutely annihilated by the god awful acting of the lead actress.

What the director was thinking when he thought of making her go crazy i'll never know.

Thank god that is over!!

Please don't waste your time on this

Only Watched Because I'm in Rochester

[gwarnings13 · 31 March 2009]

I only basically wanted to see the location shots of my crap city, and surely did notice a few! The part that really drove me insane is the use of cell phones and laptops. I noticed the cars were pretty old looking but when the dad of Wanda hands over HER CELL PHONE to the cops for her contacts-- the movie was just dead to me after that. The kid was 12 year old and the year was 1972. Also I wasn't sure about the time frame because I think the killer struck again well before two years after the first girl's death.

I know it was only supposed to be "based on" these murders, but if they went to all the trouble of actually filming on location in Rochester, why didn't they go for a little more credibility? It was just meh, but again, fun for the location shots, and Eliza Deshku is always very good in everything.

Don't remember any of that

[james1-494-826857 · 7/10 · 25 November 2017]

I live in Rochester New York. I remember the story in the local newspapers growing up it was terrifying. Not just so much because there was three homicides which happens all over the world but the double initial thing was really creepy. I don't remember anything about a female detective going crazy though maybe that was all behind the scenes but I believe it was made up.... The footage are real streets bars and eateries in Rochester which make it a little more authentic but this homicide detective going crazy I think that's a little far-fetched. They used fake names of the deceased. The real names are Carmen Colon, Michelle Maenza and Wanda Walkaweicz their ingrained in my head it was so traumatic. The towns that matched the initials of where the bodies were dropped off are real towns so that is real. On a side note we also had Arthur Shawcross who killed about 7 prostitutes but we inherited him he was not born in our area he came from Watertown outside of Syracuse. He was paroled here isn't that wonderful? We also had Kenneth Bianchi ( known as the hillside strangler ) who grew up in a suburb of Rochester (Gates Chili) he was a serial killer in California. The caption states "Rochester is a blue-collar City" I don't know many cities that aren't blue-collar with the exception of Manhattan N.Y. which is probably the only one that has no blue-collar areas in the country. Like all cities there are upscale parts of the city and blue collar. The girls came from a blue-collar area but I live in the city (Park Ave area) and it's certainly not blue-collar. The suburbs can be very affluent like other cities......They never caught the guy to this day..... every 10 year anniversary or so the newspapers will "talk" about it again....for once (it seems) guns are not the culprit.... and as long as we're on the topic of homicide....when are we going to get rid of assault rifles? Or the clip people use to modify the assault rifle. The Las Vegas shooter killed 58 people. I'm sorry people you can't shoot a deer 58 times and still eat it......

So Lacking It Is Criminal

[LeonLouisRicci · 2/10 · 15 October 2012]

An interesting premise of a Detective going insane while investigating a case is so ineptly handled here as to become irrelevant. It relies only on hand twitching and neck bending with a hallucination of pasty face corpses walking around.

After TV shows like CSI and Dexter there is no excuse for this bland, dull, and un-stylish movie. It cannot rise above anything more than a well below average excuse for a serial killer story that is as uninteresting as a serial killer story could possibly be. In fact, the whole process of filmmaking is so lacking in creativity it is criminal.

There is nothing to recommend except that it is a notch above awful, and oh yes, shaky camera fans can rejoice, because here we go again, but at least the lead actress doesn't mumble.

The frustrating part, the part that drives you crazy, is that the people you really want to talk to are dead.

[lastliberal · 6/10 · 13 September 2009]

There is not a lot that is original here. After all, the Alphabet killer first made his appearance in 1966 in London, and was sought by none other than Hercule Poirot. This is an up to date version, based loosely on a real killer in America, and with currently hot stars.

Rob Schmidt, who directed Wrong Turn, is at the helm, and he brought along Eliza Dushku from that film (also "Tru Calling", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer").

The rest of the cast is very familiar: Cary Elwes (Saw), Oscar winner Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), Oscar nominee Melissa Leo (Frozen River), and Bill Moseley (Halloween, The Devil's Rejects, Grindhouse).

Dushku is a police Lieutenant who has visions and attempts suicide in pursuit of a killer.

The movie was fairly interesting because of the actors, but it was ultimately just another police procedural with nothing special to set it apart from and episode of the Ghost Whisperer.

Nice concept, pity about the execution.

[bongdragon · 3/10 · 19 October 2009]

Interesting concept and an OK storyline that had potential to be so much more interesting than what was created.

The audio creates a very creepy atmosphere at times and the CG is quite effective in adding to this eerie atmosphere. For the first 15 minutes, the film started very well and I was hoping to to be thrilled and suspended for the entire length of the movie... No such luck!

The film was poorly executed and the script was bland and uninteresting.

There was hardly any character development and the Heroine in this movie was annoying and useless. The story was disjointed and the characters were just thrown in the mix without much consideration to the plot. The twist in the movie was like having the straightest chip taken out of a Twisties packet. Not much of a twist at all!

The over exaggerated movements and terrible acting of Eliza Dushku contributed to this film's demise. The script fails drastically to address empathy from viewers and within 15 minutes of watching this, I succumbed myself to 83 minutes of mediocrity.

Bitterly disappointed.

This film confirmed to me that Eliza Dushku cannot act at all.

Effective thriller with good performances

[oshram-3 · 7/10 · 30 January 2009]

Sometimes this film plays like a by-the-numbers serial killer movie, and at times the pacing is a little slow. But 'Killer' is buoyed up by several good performances. Hutton is low key but very good, and a number of small, supporting roles are very well cast and acted as well. Elwes is almost unrecognizable due to some weight gain, and he doesn't come off as strongly as some of the others. As for Dushku, well, this is probably the finest performance she's ever attempted. It doesn't always work – she's not especially convincing when she has to descend into madness – but most of the time she's a cut and a half above her usual fare; it's as if she finally decided to take a role where her looks aren't a factor and actually act, and it was nice to see for the most part she could pull it off (hey, they aren't going to see her as an 'adult' actress in Hollywood as long as she plays cheerleaders and works for Joss Whedon). This is the type of role you would have associated with a younger Sandra Bullock or Angelina Jolie (i.e., pre-skeletal), and Dushku compares favorably.

It's not a particularly happy or comforting movie; it's not quite creepy enough to be unsettling, and the director undercuts Megan's madness by showing us what she is hallucinating (showing off, by the way, some really terrific make-up effects); so the viewer is never really sure if, like Haley Joel Osment, she really can see dead people or if she's just going bonkers, or possibly both, the latter caused by the former. But Dushku is interesting to watch here (and not for any of the usual reasons) and shows promise she never has before.

Nothing good can come from this picture

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 2/10 · 6 March 2011]

With no originality at all and plenty of bad things in its core, "The Alphabet Killer" comes to ruin what could be a good story about the real events surrounding the alphabet killer, a psychopath that kidnapped and killed several girls whose initial letters were the same and he never got caught by the police.

Eliza Dushku plays an detective working on the case, trying to discover who this guy is and trying to recover her own sanity after seeing strange hallucinations and visions of the victims while investigating the case. She gets some help from Timothy Hutton's character, a paraplegic psychologist and from another detective; and doesn't get along with her ex-boyfriend (Cary Elwes) who also covers the case.

So, the movie is more about her traumatic and ridiculous moments than to save lives or catch a killer. The director and writers didn't know how to built a suspense and sustain a mystery, everything is so slow and they didn't know how to scare the audience (although the final revelation of who the killer was is so predictable that you might laugh or say that is unbelievably bad). It's not just that that ruins the film, it is also the twisted moments that Dushku has and we're forced to watch being the worst the scene where she escapes from the hospital where she was held, breaking the arm of a nurse even though she already dominated him, and he couldn't do anything with her. That scene is pathetic, also the scenes with her delusions and the "music in her ears" in the church scene.

"The Alphabet Killer" is filled with bad acting, a story with no involvement, no thrill, nothing. Dushku and Elwes are terrible, what a bomb! What happened to Elwes eyebrow? He looked like a old female witch; and Dushku had the guts to produce something like this. The surprising good acting in this thing comes from Melissa Leo and Martin Donovan playing the parents of the Walsh girl, one of the victims; Jack McGee has some good moments and Timothy Hutton is there for reasons of embarrassment and those things can happen with a previous Oscar winner.

Movies inspired in real events usually are good and I enjoy it, but this one is a almost supernatural dramatic flick who has nothing good in it, a waste of time. Pathetic! 2/10

great class b movie

[deanofrpps · 9/10 · 17 October 2009]

i was astounded at the rash of negative comments. in my view this was a great class b movie. while it might not rank with the Cagney genre of gangster movies, for a crime drama, it catches the angst a decent detective trying to find the logic in the irrational might feel.

meet Lt. Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku). she's the detective with the brain. why she asks herself would a deranged killer murder a little girl with the initials cc in Christs Church? The percentage of the population with identical initials is small. What is the perverted logic behind the irrational act? She pours into the case but can find no answers. As she is steadily driving herself crazy with trying to second guess the irrational mind, her finance Capt. Kenneth Shine (Cary Elwes) orders her off the case. Hr attempt at suicide lands her in the funny farm where in group she discusses her overreaching toward a solution.

Zoom ahead to her discharge. A benevolent ex-fiancé restores her to uniform in the records department, but with a recurrence of the alphabet murders she is allowed to tag along with the investigating detective through a series of dead ends until a nearby small town force pins the incident on a hostage taker shot in the act.

Can former LT Megan Paige retain her sanity long enough to find the killer? See the movie.

The cast is not composed of world class actors but the acting is credible.

Detective work becomes an obsession.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 5 August 2010]

A thrilling crime drama full of intrigue and anxiety. Megan Paige(Eliza Dushku)is a Rochester, NY detective with a devotion for her work that borders obsession. She gets deeply involved with the case of a ten year old girl that is brutally raped and murdered. Megan works herself into a frenzy and when she begins seeing visions and talking to herself she is taken off the case. She suffers a total nervous breakdown and is institutionalized for two years. She returns to work as a records clerk. Her ex-boyfriend(Cary Elwes)has been promoted to head of the department and wants to keep a safe distance from her. When another young girl is abducted, raped and murdered Megan finds a connection that no one else immediately sees. This new case is off limits to desk jockey Paige and she slowly begins suffering a relapse and the only one that seems to understand her situation is a friend from her time at the psychiatric hospital(Timothy Hutton). Paranoid schizophrenia gets in the way of Megan's new work as an adviser in what has become a hunt for a serial killer. Director Rob Schmidt is able to present the grim story in a convincing fashion. The atmosphere is dark and cold and frazzles the viewers nerves...and that is a good thing. Dushku is fantastic in the role. Others in the cast: Michael Ironside, Tom Noonan, Carl Lumbly and Tom Malloy.

Horrible Movie!

[pdreyest · 2/10 · 18 January 2009]

This had to be the worst film of 2008 by far. The acting was not convincing and made it seem like a cheap version of the "FBI Files" or any Detective/Police TV show on a higher budget. No one call tell me that that a captain of the police will let a mentally insane ex-detective on a serial killer just because they were engaged? Then he wants to act all "iffy" because he might get demoted! Come on! Then the police plants evidence on this mentally ill guy because they were sure it was him; yeah right... It was clearly predictable, specially how the director placed the alleged killer/confidant around her throughout the whole film. I don't even want to get into the special effects...I can make things look scarier using a Polaroid camera. Get the picture.

The only thing this movie will be remembered by is for being Eliza's first topless movie after she said that she will never come out nude in any movie. This is the only reason why I gave it a 2/10.