Director: Benjamin Meade
Staring: James Ellroy
More Info:
IMDBPlot: It's the story of Bob Berdella, an unassuming Kansas City, Missouri man who raped, tortured and killed at least six young men over a four-year period beginning in 1984.
My Rating: 5.5/10
Would I watch it again? Not likely
Here's an interesting take on a documentary that has an interesting subject but has an unconventional method of storytelling...well, sort of. The film opens with his last victim escaping after being tortured for a week. Naked save for a dog collar and leash, he jumps from the second story window and runs for help. Not really shocking but more surprising, Meade is not afraid to show A LOT of this nude man running around and screaming. At first it seems bold but later in the film I began to question it, and the film, as exploitative. See, all of the reenactments are deliberately made to look like old, filthy 8mm prints. Meade did a fantastic job with that. Hell, even the gore is really well done. All of this gives it an air of authenticity. I dug it. There's some real talent here.
The story of the actual guy is kind of interesting if even routine. When it comes to serial killers, he's not going to stand out. He's an average guy that lived alone in a nice, old house in a middle class neighborhood. He owned and operated a novelty shop in a flea marked called Bob's Bazaar Bizzare, a head shop of sorts with all kinds of occult-ish items. He was 35 when his first documented victim was abducted. For the next four years he is known to have raped, tortured an killed 6 young men. Their ordeal lasted anywhere from 48 hours to more than a month before he killed them.
His torture techniques were not unlike some of the WWII Nazi experiments conducted at the various concentration camps. He was discovered to have injected varying substances into the victims' throats to destroy their ability to speak or scream. He would drug them to keep them subdued, sodomize them with carrots, cucumbers and his fist. On at least one victim he injected Drano into his eye. There's more to it but it's clear he was a sick, sadistic fuck.
The guy Meade found to play Berdella in the flashbacks is spot on. Noted crime author James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia - who also produced BB) pops in from time to time about Berdella and his utter distaste for this scumbag. Ellroy's a laugh riot and he's very engaging when he's on screen. This is about where my praise ends. There are two major issues I have with this and I'll start with what I speculated at some point into the picture - it's too voyeuristic and it borderlines on sensationalism and exploitation.
Oh, a minor annoyance is the music by The Alloy Orchestra. I just don't like it. The moment I heard it I had flashbacks to an otherwise GREAT DVD put out by Kino of Fatty Arbuckle & Buster Keaton. They scored those silent films and it's absolutely horrible to the point of lowering the volume to enjoy the films. Yep. It's the same group. I did not see that coming. And how seriously can you take a "documentary" that routinely shows you clips of the musicians and bands who contribute to the score?
There are several people interviewed that took this whole thing far too lightly, smiling and laughing about the crime scenes. This could be interpreted to also show how cruel and stupid we humans can be. OK, I can give Meade that but when you combine it with extended and graphic flashbacks made to look authentic and sometimes humorous, that's where you feel that he's going for sensationalism.
There's one scene in particular that stood out and illustrates this. Berdella is cooking chili (now this is purely speculative that he actually did this with most people close to the case saying it's not likely to have happened) and he cuts up some meat from the victims - fingers and such. After using the knife to push them from the cutting board into the pot, he looks at the knife and licks it. It's funny. It doesn't belong in a documentary unless it A) really happened or B) they're playing the film for laughs. Do it all day long in a movie but not a documentary. It's insulting to the victims and their families.
By the way, Berdella died of a heart attack in prison four years after his arrest.
What's the other big issue? There's a band called, The Demon Dogs, that shows up four times to act as a Greek Chorus, singing songs about Berdella and his crimes. These music videos, besides being just plain bad, are jarring in their inclusion and really take you out of the picture. It's like a commercial and it's time for a bathroom break or something. WTF? At this point I have no idea what Meade was trying to accomplish. I assume this is the film he wanted to make. If so, great. I certainly cannot fault him for that. The best I can muster up at this point is faulting him for not making the film I would have wanted him to make. (cue the shitty music videos)
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