B.T.K is set in Wichita in Kansas where a serial killer is at large, by day Dennis Rader (Kane Hodder) is a respectable figure of authority as a local compliance officer & has just been voted in as President of a local Church & with a wife & two daughters Dennis seems the model citizen. However Dennis hides a dark secret, he is the notorious B.T.K. killer who taunts police with his notes & terrifies the city with his horrendous crimes. Dennis becomes sloppy though & as the net closes in on him maybe his reign of terror can be ended once & for all...
Produced, written & directed by Michael Feifer this opens with some on-screen text that admits B.T.K. is a fictional story featuring a real character so don't expect some in depth true life biography of Dennis Rader the infamous serial killer who killed ten people between 1974 & 1991 in Sedgwick County & went uncaught until 2005 after he had resumed sending letters in 2004 & was sentenced to life with him being eligible for parole after 175 years by which time he will be long dead. This film focuses on Rader's later years & the build-up to his capture which here is because he was traced by one of his letters but what else is actually accurate here is open to debate, there's something about a prostitute ripping him off & lots of bland scenes of Rader living his everyday life between his murderous activities as he is a local compliance officer who measures peoples grass to check whether it's to long & there's a few scenes of hi at home with his wife & kids who talk about the B.T.K. killer while Rader is quick to reassure them. Every so often there's a kill scene which are quite grim I suppose but are never scary & the film never gets into the mind of Rader or gives him any real motivation & his interaction with people in his normal life just comes across as bland as much as anything else & the interaction between Rader, the police & the media goes all but untouched upon. At 90 odd minutes it feels like quite a long film & despite trying to retain an air authenticity throughout there's a cheap 'it was all a dream' style ending you would expect from a teen slasher rather than a serious serial killer biography.
There's a bit of gore here, there's a couple of gory gunshot wounds as he shoots a couple of people, a cop gets hit by a car & we see his mangled body & a woman has a spade shoved into her stomach along with an unpleasant scene in which he suffocates a woman with a plastic bag around her head. Kane Hodder also appeared in director Feifer's biography Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007) as Gein so he has now played two of America's most notorious serial killers on film while also appearing in Feifer's serial killer biography (how many has this guy made?) Bundy: An American Icon (2008) which chronicles the deeds undertook by Ted Bundy I assume. B.T.K. has a made for telly feel about it, it's competent but underwhelming & forgettable.
The budget for this was probably fairly low but it does have decent production values & doesn't look that cheap. The acting is mixed, the three who play Rader's wife & kids are terrible but Hodder in the lead is alright.
B.T.K. is another one of those biopics that try to live off the name of a notorious serial killer, while not the worst example out there it's not the best either. For die hard serial killer enthusiasts only. B.T.K. Killer (2005) & The Hunt for the BTK Killer (2005) also deal with Rader & his crimes.
Produced, written & directed by Michael Feifer this opens with some on-screen text that admits B.T.K. is a fictional story featuring a real character so don't expect some in depth true life biography of Dennis Rader the infamous serial killer who killed ten people between 1974 & 1991 in Sedgwick County & went uncaught until 2005 after he had resumed sending letters in 2004 & was sentenced to life with him being eligible for parole after 175 years by which time he will be long dead. This film focuses on Rader's later years & the build-up to his capture which here is because he was traced by one of his letters but what else is actually accurate here is open to debate, there's something about a prostitute ripping him off & lots of bland scenes of Rader living his everyday life between his murderous activities as he is a local compliance officer who measures peoples grass to check whether it's to long & there's a few scenes of hi at home with his wife & kids who talk about the B.T.K. killer while Rader is quick to reassure them. Every so often there's a kill scene which are quite grim I suppose but are never scary & the film never gets into the mind of Rader or gives him any real motivation & his interaction with people in his normal life just comes across as bland as much as anything else & the interaction between Rader, the police & the media goes all but untouched upon. At 90 odd minutes it feels like quite a long film & despite trying to retain an air authenticity throughout there's a cheap 'it was all a dream' style ending you would expect from a teen slasher rather than a serious serial killer biography.
There's a bit of gore here, there's a couple of gory gunshot wounds as he shoots a couple of people, a cop gets hit by a car & we see his mangled body & a woman has a spade shoved into her stomach along with an unpleasant scene in which he suffocates a woman with a plastic bag around her head. Kane Hodder also appeared in director Feifer's biography Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007) as Gein so he has now played two of America's most notorious serial killers on film while also appearing in Feifer's serial killer biography (how many has this guy made?) Bundy: An American Icon (2008) which chronicles the deeds undertook by Ted Bundy I assume. B.T.K. has a made for telly feel about it, it's competent but underwhelming & forgettable.
The budget for this was probably fairly low but it does have decent production values & doesn't look that cheap. The acting is mixed, the three who play Rader's wife & kids are terrible but Hodder in the lead is alright.
B.T.K. is another one of those biopics that try to live off the name of a notorious serial killer, while not the worst example out there it's not the best either. For die hard serial killer enthusiasts only. B.T.K. Killer (2005) & The Hunt for the BTK Killer (2005) also deal with Rader & his crimes.