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Overall Rating : 5/10
Directed By : Michael Feifer
Corin Nemec (Raging Sharks)
Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster)
Tony Todd (Candyman)
Debbie Rochon (Skin Crawl)
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jun.12, 2007
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| PLOT On July 14th, 1966, Richard Speck broke into a South Chicago townhouse and took 9 student nurses hostage. There he methodically beat, raped, and stabbed the young women to death in one of the bloodiest mass murders in American history. |
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| THE REVIEW CHICAGO MASSACRE : RICHARD SPECK, is a film based on Serial Killer Richard Speck. RICHARD living in the Dallas Texas area is a seemingly quiet but string man. He eventually leaves Texas after a divorce from his wife, and after losing his wife, he also seems it as a great opportunity to escape the mental evaluation treatment a judge had ordered for him days prior. Now living in the city of Chicago, Richard is adjusting to his new life there and to his new job working at the shipping docks. He runs into a familiar face, a woman named Sharon. He met her while traveling on the bus, a nursing student, Sharon lives in the local Nurses' dorm - a place Richard would soon become familiar with. Suffering from some kind of mental illness, Speck was very familiar with the frequent psychotic urge, and such an urge would land him at the aforementioned dorm, and the results would be tragic. Over the course of the night on July 14, 1996, he bound raped and killed 8 young nursing students, while a ninth would survive while hiding under a bed. Police are quick to begin an investigation, and perhaps no one was as determined as Jack Whitaker to catch, the person whom at the time, was an unknown suspect. With an extensive search, mainly single-handedly by Whitaker, whom had taken the case to heart and a few tips and a positive identification by the sole survivor, Richard Speck is eventually caught and convicted. Originally convicted to die, his death penalty was overturned and he was sentenced to 400 to 1200 years behind bars. Writer/Director Michael Feifer returns with his newest film which is yet another Serial Killer/True Crime based thriller, this time based on the life of killer Richard Speck. This film follows his last project which was based on the life of heavily notorious killer Ed Gein. Feifer has written, produced and directed a number of Horror films, that are of a variety, so when I heard of his film, ED GEIN : BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD, I was a bit skeptical, Because I had seen a number of his films and were most of the time, more times than not just averagely pleased. The Ed Gein film was something different for him, and although I did not have time to review it here on the site, as an Ed Gein fan, I had to check it out, amd I was kind of pleasantly surprised by it. Sure it wasn't perfect, and sure Kane Hodder's portrayal wasn't all that believable(Steve Railsback was better in my opinion), the film really impressed me visually. Now after seeing his film on Richard Speck, i'd say it's almost safe to say that Michael Feifer, just may have found his niche, the True Crime/Horror genre, as this is another eye pleasing film. However it is still not perfect as I feel some of the scenes could've been better explained, and the acting is what i'd call mixed (I'm sorry to say, but the girl who played the only survivor was unconvincing). I am a fan of all True Crime type stuff, but I have to admit that Richard Speck is one Serial Killer that I am least familiar with. Not knowing much about Speck, I would've liked to have been able to learn more about him as a person, and I feel that in the beginning of the film, the explanation of how he got to "point A" and "point B", was a little too brief. Before we know it, Speck is already is Chicago and a short time later, the crime he committed occurs, there is no extensive background as to why he left his home state of Texas or even his motivation for the gruesome killings, what made him choose the Nursing dorm and why? Surely more evidence was presented in the trial. Having seen Corin Nemec in B-Movie schlock such as MANQUITO and the likes of, I was expecting a horrible performance, as he takes on the role of a true to life serial killer. But to my surprise Nemec does a rather convincing job, and in fact I believe he has the best performance in the film. Andrew Divoff from films such as WISHMASTER plays opposite Nemec as the determined Officer Jack Whitaker. Divoff also fares well here as the determined cop whom will do anything to bring his suspect down, the film based in the 1960's, Divoff's performance works as I had the feeling I was watching an old school Police drama at times....strange but true. The film also has cameos from the likes of Tony Todd and Scream Queen, Debbie Rochon. Tony Todd's role is more prominent as he is part of the force, while Rochon's role as a prostitute, holds little significance to the story at all. But just like any time, any excuse to get Debbie Rochon in your movie is a good one, she's great. Overall, CHICAGO MASSACRE : RICHARD SPECK is a decent summary of a Serial Killer's life, but it leaves a lot needed to be explained. But I must say that I enjoyed it for what it is, for a film based in a certain time period it definitely had the right look and feel. |
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| GORE
METER 4.5/10 Coming from the multiple stabbings, most of the film's gore takes place in various flashbacks depicting the crime, and after the fact - not as gory as I thought it would be but it is well executed. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2.5/10 The scoring to me was very generic, nothing special, nor terrible. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM As I said, CHICAGO MASSACRE : RICHARD SPECK is good brief examination of Speck, but lacks detail, and people unaware of Speck's crimes will only get only the gist of the story. But still a surprisingly convincing performance by Corin Nemec makes the film entertaining for what it is and at least worth checking out! |
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