User Reviews

Philip Markoff (Jake McDorman) is a top Boston University medical student beloved by his professor. He zeros in on Megan McAllister (Agnes Bruckner) and pushes to get married. He seems like the perfect guy on the surface but nobody sees the darkness beneath. He becomes obsessed with Craigslist and starts attacking the women on those ads with escalating violence. Police detectives Bennett (William Baldwin) investigates.

The start is way too slow. The tension is too low at the start. There is basically no tension. This should a horror story or a dramatic thriller. There is nothing close to that here. These are all perfectly functional actors given rather bland material despite the scary subject matter. It's a movie of the week at best.

Like the rest of the world (it was a trending topic on Twitter) I was anxiously awaiting the world premiere of The Craigslist Killer. I'll give it this: for a Lifetime movie, it wasn't half bad. Could it have been better? Yes. At times the acting was bad, the music was cheesy, and it was a bit slow for the first thirty minutes. I was expecting the killing scenes to be a bit more intense than they were, but I guess that's what you get with a woman's network. I think if this had been taken to the big screen and directed by Scorsese it would have been a box office hit. You have to remember that Lifetime is a network directed towards women, so the movies are directed towards women as well (hence all the romance in the beginning.) All in all I'd say it was a decent movie. It wasn't something I would pay money to see, but it was something that filled my time and kept me semi interested.

In Boston, the bright medical student Philip Markoff (Jake McDorman) is in the top of his class at the Boston University and with a promising future. When he meets the gorgeous Megan McAllister (Agnes Bruckner), they fall in love with each other and move in together to an apartment. Six months later, they travel to New Jersey and Philip proposes to marry her.

However, Philip shows that is also a dysfunctional man that posts in the Craigslist that he loves bondage and travesties and seeks masseuses to submit them to bondage and steals them. When he brutally kills a masseuse from New York that reacts to his attack, Detectives Bennett (William Baldwin) and Frye (Josh Close) track him down and their investigation discover the dark side of promising doctor.

"The Craigslist Killer" is a decent TV movie based on the true story of a man that is a bright student but also a deviant person. The screenplay does not keep the mystery about the behavior of Philip Markoff and just reports his dark story. The romance of Philip and Megan in the beginning is too long, maybe with the intention of explaining her love for him, and there is no explanation for the behavior of Philip. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Assassino da Internet" ("The Internet Killer")

Supposed to be about a real life serial killer it's like watching a cheesy syrup soap opera... Acting is appalling and not one millisecond of suspense without being marred by appalling music cues that make no sense Absolute crap don't waste your time !!!!!!

The whole feel of the movie doesn't match the story at all like some hallmark Christmas fall in love with the obvious character movie. It's a slow burn very boring. An excellent story that should of been told by someone else.

What a dismal adaption of a real life serial killer. No tension, no examination of the psyche of the killer, all fluff and Lifetime syrup. The actors are wasted in this mess. This story deserves a decent adaptation.

I thought that this movie was very well done for a Lifetime movie. I thought that this movie was going to be bad but in fact it was thrilling. I was very interested through out the movie. The acting wasn't great but it was a reasonably okay casting. Phillip's acting was up and down, depending on the scenes but that only detracted from the movie just a little. I thought the directing was all right. The lines were just okay. At times they were really good, and others they were just hokey. I would recommend watching but not something you gotta see right away. I give this a good rating because it is not the normal crap movie that Lifetime produces. It is a quality film that deserves recognition. I am glad this was filmed because it does show the true evil that anybody can have. Well, what you define as evil.

Usually in these Lifetime-type television movies, the acting is histrionic, over-wrought and completely unrealistic. However, this movie held my interest and each actor was convincing in his/her role, especially in light of the fact that it was based on the true story of the actual Craigslist killer, Philip Markoff.

In addition, the dialogue was realistic. The two leads did an excellent job, and thankfully the scenes of violence were brief and not overly graphic.

Finally, the actors portraying Markoff's fiancé's parents conducted themselves in a way I would think parents would react if they found out their daughter was engaged to a person who committed the acts Markoff did. William Baldwin also acquitted himself well as the lead detective pursuing the perpetrator.

I thought the movie was well done considering the subject matter.

The movie was average throughout but in the end they made it seem like they had sympathy for the killer w the sad music which is sooooo disrespectful to the victims and their families...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The acting, directing, and presentation are terrible. There is no emotion or connection to the characters.

If you want to know about the story look up the facts online - black and white, no story, no reasoning, no sound, no feelings.

I don't even feel sorry for the people involved because this was done so bad. There are many people in the movie that they spent time on developing into ... nothing they just disappear.

This movie script was a teenagers 1st try at a scary story. (I only say teenager because they haven't experienced enough in life yet to know what to write).

Now I want to watch another movie so I don't feel like I've wasted my movie night.

If you read the summary of the plot you do not need to see the film - it provides no greater insight. No need to look at why, the motivations, the history. I have no idea how a film like this gets funded. Serious, intelligent people - directing, producing, acting and not one of the went wow what a waste of time. Almost so bad you should watch!

First of all, I was not familiar with the Craiglist killer before this movie, but I looked it up and the events in the movie appear oversimplified/altered but not so distorted as to make it an unrecognizable story. However, that's about the only positive thing that can be said...

Such a collection of bad choices... The story is about - you guessed it - the Craigslist killer. Philip Markoff led a double life as an engaged, grade A med student, lots of friends, while at the same time seeking out sex workers on Craigslist to rob and humiliate, even killing one. Sounds enaging? Guess again! This movie manages to kill all and any interest the viewers might have.

The script/plot is messy and starts questions that it does not answer. For example, hinting at Markoff's family history, but not following up on that. Showing his M. O., but never explaining why or how he started doing this. And much, much more.

Moreover, the acting is horrible and almost 80% consists of "romantic" lovey dovey scenes between Markoff and his feyoncé. Very stunted dialogues with the senselessness and simplicity, even a teenager would think it's dumb. Ridiculous and superficial. Think level "I love you - no, I love you more", "you're so perfect" and worse. It has no point. If it was meant to give their relationship more credit, as a "how shocking that he lived so separate lives", it just failed. Instead, it comes across as if you're watching a different kind of movie. And the main problem: if you were to cut these parts out, there would be exactly 20 minutes of movie left.

Oh! And the music! "Clueless" or "Dawson's Creek" would have been jealous! It was so stupendously off-the-mark that it was almost funny, had it not been such a serious topic. Romcom songs play in all the scenes involving his bride-to-be, but also in a lot of scenes that had a much darker tone, making it even more inappropriate.

Then there are the few parts about his actual crimes, but these are filmed like it's a low budget student project and with zero suspense. Even though the actual women he attacked must have gone through something terrifying and traumatic, in the movie it elicites no empathetic or emotional resposne in the viewer. Even near the ending of the movie, it left me wondering what the point was of making this movie.

The events that happened in real life could have been adapted to the screen in a respectful and captivating movie. This movie is not that. It seems amateuristic and as if it does not get the point of its own story.

In many ways the majority of the movie plays like a Hallmark Christmas love story until of course all the horrible events take place. There's of course nothing wrong with made for TV movies like this one that attract large audiences, but they just aren't spectacular if you re being honest with yourself. The fact this is a true story makes it really tragic and leaves you feeling kind of sick that someone was able to pull these horrible acts off.

Further, the acting in the movie , much like other made for TV movies, is not all that special and the movie doesn't really dig deep into what Philips motivations were. Perhaps a bit too much time is spent on the love story and not how Philip ended in this state. I understand they had to put effort into how he appeared to others but i feel there were opportunities to do this while also showing how he became what he did.

It perhaps would have been better to make it as a series, but then again Im not sure it's always in the best interest of society to glorify these people by giving them a whole series. Although I guess you do see them making successful spin-offs on Ted Bundy and Dahmer, but I digress.

In the end it was a worthwhile watch and I thought it probably deserved better than what I scored it , but it felt incomplete to me and therefore I could not give it higher.

I have to give the film makers points for staying true to the story, almost everything they showed actually happened and they even used the real names. However, the lack of flair usually given to "based on true story" movies ultimately led it to not be that interesting.

it could be better. it is the first conclusion after its end. in fact, the verdict is not correct. because it has the virtue to be a honest adaptation of a real case, warning about relations on social sites, portrait of a man under the pressure of real life, free in virtual space , killer and , at first sigh, admirable student. a film who presents without impose the verdict. proposing image of a killer , sketches for his victims, the impact for family and media, the last days and the final decision. the manner - same with a television film. the absence of explicit scenes, the superficial presentation of details are far to represent errors. the essence of case is important. and the way to preserve two life styles has a good illustration. so, a decent thriller.

From far the worst movie I saw this years, poor acting, stupid characters, even the camera work is terrible, it made one hour feels like an eternity. The story could have be good, but just lacks everything. It was torture to sit until the end, precious life hours completely wasted. I was shocked with the rating here, once I always use it to choose movies, learned now it can't be trusted that much, honestly i cant imagine how anyone could give more than 2 starts to this.

I made an effort to come write this review so i can save peoples time of this apathetic experience that was watch to this. You re welcome.

First off, what accent was Billy Baldwin trying to use? He is honestly not a good actor and this movie just demonstrates this fact. I really should have known better when I saw him come up on the screen. The movie was at best a made for TV show. The music did not match what was happening and there was absolutely no suspense. I kept watching it hoping it would get better. After half a bottle of wine.... still didn't do it for me. So to summarize, if you're bored on a Friday night like I was, and you cant find anything better to watch, this might just fill that void but honestly just no.

Sub standard, even for a lifetime type of TV movie, which I usually quite like. Characters were annoying and not all that convincing. Was glad when it was over.