I was unfortunately taken for a ride by purchasing this movie on my on-demand service. I can normally pick out a straight-to-DVD title but my knowledge of Richard Speck's horrific crime and unusual prison experience made me purchase this film out of pure curiosity. I was curious to see how this story would be tackled. Would they emphasis the crime or rather would they examine Speck's unusual twisted tenure in prison? They did neither. I could have even handled a Zodiac type film where they went into an in-depth look at the investigation but the investigation was actually the worst portion of the film with over dramatized cop clichés and really predictable dialogue.
In no way do we get to know the young Speck and what would lead this man to carry out such a terrible crime. An attempt is made to show abuse in his childhood by a step father in the form of a vague two minute abuse scene. We then move right into a build up of the crime without demonstrating any background of Speck's psych besides that he smokes a ton of cigarettes, drinks, and is at the very least is full of bad jokes. No mention is made of his time in Navy, long stint of unemployment nor any mention that he was lead to Chicago to visit his sister whom is never referenced in the film. Two random flash back type scenes demonstrate his marriage but early on..basta..nothing. Once the crime is portrayed they constantly go back and cut in and out of it for no apparent reason. In my opinion they did this to get the cheap shock and unnecessary violence in because gore sells. I then thought at this point in the film the meat and potatoes would be Speck in prison i.e his smuggling of hormone injections to cause him to look like a deformed old woman with breasts, his infamous porn tapes with other inmates or at least his open access to illegal drugs. Instead, they decided to go into the court hearings and some more smoking of cigarettes with a shrink. No reference is even made to the senatorial hearings on prison reform that were later conducted due the leak of Speck's videos. This is just really bad story telling because of lack of research and a bottom line bad script.
In no way am I saying that Corin Nemec is a bad actor. He was just the wrong guy for the job. The real Speck did not possess any boyish charm nor a voice that high. The make-up work on Nemec is also rather tame compared to the real acne Speck possessed. A deeper voice Jackie Earle Haley would have been a great pick but they probably believe it or not could not afford him. This leads me into the budget.
This film is extremely low budget and should maybe not have even been attempted in order to not spoil a proper future Speck film. When I mean low budget I mean a real lack of showing Chicago in the sixties, empty sets i.e the crime scene, very limited locations and bad secondary actors.
Do yourself a favor and do not bother with this film. If anything, watch the Richard Speck specials with Bill Kurtis on Cold Case Files or American Justice. At the very least you'll get the real story and see a piece of the real Speck prison videos and not the lame re-enactment in the film. Believe it or not they screwed that up too. If they had any marketing savvy they would have made up for this bad piece of film making by showing the real Speck video footage at the end.
Worst thing is... I don't even know who to ask for my money back......
In no way do we get to know the young Speck and what would lead this man to carry out such a terrible crime. An attempt is made to show abuse in his childhood by a step father in the form of a vague two minute abuse scene. We then move right into a build up of the crime without demonstrating any background of Speck's psych besides that he smokes a ton of cigarettes, drinks, and is at the very least is full of bad jokes. No mention is made of his time in Navy, long stint of unemployment nor any mention that he was lead to Chicago to visit his sister whom is never referenced in the film. Two random flash back type scenes demonstrate his marriage but early on..basta..nothing. Once the crime is portrayed they constantly go back and cut in and out of it for no apparent reason. In my opinion they did this to get the cheap shock and unnecessary violence in because gore sells. I then thought at this point in the film the meat and potatoes would be Speck in prison i.e his smuggling of hormone injections to cause him to look like a deformed old woman with breasts, his infamous porn tapes with other inmates or at least his open access to illegal drugs. Instead, they decided to go into the court hearings and some more smoking of cigarettes with a shrink. No reference is even made to the senatorial hearings on prison reform that were later conducted due the leak of Speck's videos. This is just really bad story telling because of lack of research and a bottom line bad script.
In no way am I saying that Corin Nemec is a bad actor. He was just the wrong guy for the job. The real Speck did not possess any boyish charm nor a voice that high. The make-up work on Nemec is also rather tame compared to the real acne Speck possessed. A deeper voice Jackie Earle Haley would have been a great pick but they probably believe it or not could not afford him. This leads me into the budget.
This film is extremely low budget and should maybe not have even been attempted in order to not spoil a proper future Speck film. When I mean low budget I mean a real lack of showing Chicago in the sixties, empty sets i.e the crime scene, very limited locations and bad secondary actors.
Do yourself a favor and do not bother with this film. If anything, watch the Richard Speck specials with Bill Kurtis on Cold Case Files or American Justice. At the very least you'll get the real story and see a piece of the real Speck prison videos and not the lame re-enactment in the film. Believe it or not they screwed that up too. If they had any marketing savvy they would have made up for this bad piece of film making by showing the real Speck video footage at the end.
Worst thing is... I don't even know who to ask for my money back......