Francesco Quinn plays an anti-hero cop, trying to track down a serial killer. His past intertwines with acquitted suspect Brad Dourif. There are plenty of creepy images, along with some pretty creepy music, and lots of neon lit wet streets. In other words, a weak attempt to stylize this weird and unsatisfying film. Francesco is not only foul mouthed and drunk most of the time, but his parenting skills are incredibly poor, taking his young son to a strip club. There are what seem like totally inappropriate religious overtones, almost all killing is done off screen, and the entire movie moves way too slow. You can also throw in at least a bunch of confusing flashbacks, and drug induced dreams. The one redeeming factor is the always intriguing Brad Dourif. - MERK
3 Reviews
Pre "Silence of the Lambs" like serial murder thriller set In Toronto Canada
sol121819 April 2008
Warning: Spoilers
**SPOILERS** When the slashed body of Debbie Jones is found floating in Toronto Bay bells go off in the head of Toronto policeman John Reed when a note is found in Debbie's clothes implicating John Barens in her murder.
It seems that Reed is infatuated with Barnes in having him arrested in a number of murders of young women where he was eventually found innocent. Arrested and jailed Barnes refuses to have a court-appointed lawyer or cooperate with police psychiatrist Dr. Rimbaue in what, if anything, he had to do with Debbies murder.
With no evidence at all to hold Barnes he opts to stay behind bars instead of being let free which has you wonder what exactly he's hiding from the police in not only Debbie Jones murder but the murders that are soon to hit the city with a religious-like vengeance. Murders that he predicts in advance but at the same time is, by being behind bars, not out on the streets to commit!
We get a glimpse of what's behind this string of murders, as many as two dozen, as soon as the movie started with a flashback to 1979 in the little college town of Clemmends. It's not until the very last few seconds that we come to realize who set off this ten year rampage that had some unknown religious psycho go on.
The movie is a lot like "Silance of the Lambs" that was in fact released a year later but nowhere as popular or well received. The film "Murder Blues" was almost totally ignored, by both movie critics and the movie the going public, in that it was kept of the self for almost two years until it was finally released not in the theaters but directly on video tape.
"Murder Blues" despite it's low budget and zero publicity is in a way better then the Anthony Hopkins/Jodie Foster blockbuster. The killer in the film doesn't have any superhuman strength or omnipresence intelligence like Hannibal Lector in "Silance of the Lambs". He also makes mistakes, proving that he's only human, which in the end, unlike with Lector, eventually does him in.
We never really get to see what's the reason behind these murders until a mysterious book is discovered in of all places a bank safe deposit box that belonged to the late Debbie Jones.
****SPOILER ALERT**** The occult-like book titled "The Church of the New Soul" links all the killings going on in Toronto now in 1990 to the one unsolved murder that took place in Clemmends back in 1979! What's far more disturbing is that Toronto cop John Reed who's the chief investigator of the "Toronto Serial Killer" case knows a lot more about it, and the killer himself, then he's leading us, the audience, on to what he knows!
It seems that Reed is infatuated with Barnes in having him arrested in a number of murders of young women where he was eventually found innocent. Arrested and jailed Barnes refuses to have a court-appointed lawyer or cooperate with police psychiatrist Dr. Rimbaue in what, if anything, he had to do with Debbies murder.
With no evidence at all to hold Barnes he opts to stay behind bars instead of being let free which has you wonder what exactly he's hiding from the police in not only Debbie Jones murder but the murders that are soon to hit the city with a religious-like vengeance. Murders that he predicts in advance but at the same time is, by being behind bars, not out on the streets to commit!
We get a glimpse of what's behind this string of murders, as many as two dozen, as soon as the movie started with a flashback to 1979 in the little college town of Clemmends. It's not until the very last few seconds that we come to realize who set off this ten year rampage that had some unknown religious psycho go on.
The movie is a lot like "Silance of the Lambs" that was in fact released a year later but nowhere as popular or well received. The film "Murder Blues" was almost totally ignored, by both movie critics and the movie the going public, in that it was kept of the self for almost two years until it was finally released not in the theaters but directly on video tape.
"Murder Blues" despite it's low budget and zero publicity is in a way better then the Anthony Hopkins/Jodie Foster blockbuster. The killer in the film doesn't have any superhuman strength or omnipresence intelligence like Hannibal Lector in "Silance of the Lambs". He also makes mistakes, proving that he's only human, which in the end, unlike with Lector, eventually does him in.
We never really get to see what's the reason behind these murders until a mysterious book is discovered in of all places a bank safe deposit box that belonged to the late Debbie Jones.
****SPOILER ALERT**** The occult-like book titled "The Church of the New Soul" links all the killings going on in Toronto now in 1990 to the one unsolved murder that took place in Clemmends back in 1979! What's far more disturbing is that Toronto cop John Reed who's the chief investigator of the "Toronto Serial Killer" case knows a lot more about it, and the killer himself, then he's leading us, the audience, on to what he knows!
Cop tracks prostitute-mutilating serial killer in this substandard thriller.
capkronos20 May 2003
Francisco Quinn (son of Anthony) is completely uninteresting as a detective who seeks help from incarcerated serial killer Brad Dourif to get his hands on another psycho who's been killing prostitutes. When released to video (in 1992 under the title DEAD CERTAIN), this got labeled as a SILENCE OF THE LAMB rip-off, but it was actually made first.
Too bad the script is dull, the acting is uneven and the scripter makes the mistake of giving us a "hero" who's an unsympathetic, heavy-drinking creep with a four-letter vocabulary who screws hookers and takes his young son to a strip club in the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife (Karen Russell). The loud and grating jazz music score by Charlie Mole doesn't help either.
Score: 3 out of 10
Too bad the script is dull, the acting is uneven and the scripter makes the mistake of giving us a "hero" who's an unsympathetic, heavy-drinking creep with a four-letter vocabulary who screws hookers and takes his young son to a strip club in the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife (Karen Russell). The loud and grating jazz music score by Charlie Mole doesn't help either.
Score: 3 out of 10
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