Writer: John Borowski
Composer: Corey Allen Jackson
Starring: Oto Brezina, Joe Coleman, Bob Dunsworth, Harvey Fisher, Derek Gaspar, Nathan Hall, Cooney Horvath, Tony Jay, Katherine Ramsland, Donna Rawlins, Garrett Shriver, Kasey Skinner, Ronni Trankel
More info: IMDb
Tagline: In Sin He Found Salvation
Plot: Albert Fish, the horrific true story of elderly cannibal, sadomasochist, and serial killer, who lured children to their deaths in Depression-era New York City in the first decades of the 20th Century. Distorting biblical tales, Albert Fish takes the themes of pain, torture, atonement and suffering literally as he preys on victims to torture and sacrifice.
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? Probably not.
This is the director's second film, his first being H.H. HOLMES: AMERICA'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER (2004). I loved that film until I read Harold Schechter's outstanding book on the subject (Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holmes). After that I re-visited the documentary and discovered its flaws. There was lots of padding and the narrative missed out on some of the more interesting and exciting true accounts. I'm not sure why that happened but I got the sense that this is also the case with this documentary. If you know nothing about Albert Fish then this is a great start. I'd like to get the lesser parts of the film before I get to the reasons why you should see it. At about an hour and a half, it's too long for what's included. For example, after the setup at the beginning which ends at the title card, there's literally 75 seconds of nothing but vintage 1920s NYC street scenes of cars and people bustling about in the big city. There's music and sound effects but no narration or anything that is furthering the narrative. Then a poorly voiced newsreel/radio announcer tells us of the Lindberg kidnapping. The voice sounds like the kind of thing me and my friends burst into as a joke. This device is used a small handful of times and it's disappointing at best.
Giggidy!
The narrator, Tony Jay, is fantastic. Another outstanding voice is that of Harvey Fisher as Fish. They're very, very good. Many parts of the film work very well and follow along a path that tells the story and paints some very gruesome pictures about this man. When it works, it's fantastic. When it doesn't, it's more disappointing than bad because this could've been so much better. There are only two talking heads that are interviewed (three if you count the professor at the very end who only talks about the logistics of electrocution with metal pins in the body). Katherine Ramsland who shows to know a good deal about Fish and Joe Coleman who's only reason for being in the film is that he has the original letter Fish wrote to the mother of a victim. He has very little to say about Fish regarding facts (which could be spoken by anyone) and he spends too much time talking about himself or speculating. He also likes himself a great deal. Don't we all? I enjoyed the score very much and that's one of the best parts of the film along with the narrators telling the story and hearing it from the letters and text written by the man of the hour (and a half). Try not to read any of the reviews that shit on this because there is a lot to like. Hearing Fisher (as Fish) recite what Fish told the victims' parents what he did to their child in the way he tortured them and, with some, cut them up, cooked and ate them, is fucked up and compelling as hell. The only other thing I need to add is the film breaks two thirds in to talk about (and add further speculation) his religious beliefs and how Jesus and God plays into his psyche and general fucked-up-ness. Too much time is spent on it which slows the film down. It also hurts the flow of the storytelling in that it jumps around in time frequently which forces itself to get back on track and close the picture out. It seemed that Borowski could've found a way to sprinkle that in so that we could have a recurring theme without leaving the narrative timeline.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment