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Overall Rating : 2.5/10
Directed By : Ulli Lommel
George Kiseleff
Jacquelyn Horrell
Georgina Donovan
Shannon Leade
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Feb. 22, 2006
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| PLOT One of history's most sickening serial killers, the Green River Killer. Gary L. Ridgway prowled the Seattle area between 1982 and 1998, killing as many young women as he could. |
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| THE REVIEW GREEN RIVER KILLER, tells the story of Gary Ridgway, a man, whom unhappy at home found joy in the form of prostitutes. Except how Gary found that happiness is another story, he would have sex with these women but then later beat and then ultimately kill them. This film tries to capture the true life occurrences that happened in the early 80's, and then Ridgway's capture in 2001. Some of the types of movies I most enjoy watching are movies that are based on true stories, preferably true crime, so I have seen my share of them. But often it turns out that these films fail to capture any realism at all our offer any really knowledge from the case in which to learn from and GREEN RIVER KILLER happens to be another one to add to that list. Like films like TED BUNDY, DAHMER and GACY, GREEN RIVER KILLER seems to be made up mostly of rumors and "this probably happends" rather than truths and facts. This film is told in a first person perspective just like the most recent film RAMPAGE in which is the third film of serial killer Kenneth Bianchi. We hear the story from "Gary" himself while he confesses to his crimes of killing multiple innocent young females, but my main problem is that since it is not the real Ridgway speaking, it doesn't really explain as to why he did it. All of the information that is left unturned and untouched in the film generally makes it less informative than it should be. Speaking of that, from his many interviews that I have read or heard about him, Ridgeway seems very smart but also seems as if that deep down inside he is naturally violent. I feel that director Ulli Lommel approaches the story and films it in a much too tame, and also cheesy manner. I feel personally that the story of a real serial killer, who killed real people should be told which a level of seriousness. As for the directing, it appears to have been shot in digital which gave this film a cheap look and also the feel of a cable movie or similar, definitely not the look you'd expect. The editing here is quite horrible with various sharp cuts to footage that didn't even seem to belong in the film, something I have yet to figure out why. I haven't seen any more of Lommel's work, but his filmography is quite extensive, which leaves me to wonder why his production skills have not improved in the last 20 years. The acting is not so great. In reality our only character here is Gary played by George Kiseleff. Kiseleff, does not truly embody the persona of Gary Ridgway like actors such as Steve Railsback as Charles Manson in Helter Skelter and Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy in The Deliberate Stranger, in which bother were made for TV movies. Both of these mentioned actors had you truly believing that they were the person that they were portraying.... George Kiseleff does not, that is another element that makes this film even more unbelievable. I think films about serial killers should be made for the viewer to learn something about the personal almost in an educational sense. This film, GREEN RIVER Killer appears to have been made just for entertainment purposes as some of it seems highly exaggerated and false. The best part of the whole film is probably the actually footage of the real Ridgway speaking, that is when added, possibly only about 5 minutes of screen time. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 The only real gore comes in the form of implanted stock footage that appears throughout, nothing special. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 1.5/10 The soundtrack is an odd blend of pop, dance and rock, almost like mixing pink with brown. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM This film is definitely not the best source to learn about the Green River Killer case from and surely not most accurate. THE RIVERMAN, the TV film about Ridgway, although not the greatest, was produced to a far more greater extent, there are also various documentaries that would tell the story far better than this movie could. |
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