Book Review: My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (2012)

Growing up in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, I heard a lot about serial killers and mass murderers. John Wayne Gacy and Richard Speck were from Chicago, and they were both executed for their horrendous crimes. We were also affected by another bizarre killer at that time. He wasn't from Chicago, but he often traveled there, and some of his victims were part of the Chicago gay scene. I am speaking of Milwaukee's cannibal killer, Jeffrey Dahmer.

Dahmer was a strange case. When an intended victim escaped and led police to his apartment, what was discovered was a nightmare that Wes Craven couldn't imagine. A refrigerator full of human remains was only the tip of the iceberg. Dahmer had a long and unnerving history. My Friend Dahmer dips into the early part, up until his first killing. How do we know it's accurate? It's written by one of his high school friends.

Movie Review: The Manson Family (Blu-ray, 2003)

Any filmmaker who's taken the time to put together a movie knows that it can be a painstaking process that can take a remarkably difficult toll on your stamina. Some give up, and some are persistent like Deadbeat at Dawn writer/actor/director, Jim Van Bebber. It didn't take a year, or even several years to complete his movie The Manson Family - the process took more than ten years for him to finish his second feature film. In 2003, Severin Films' David Gregory and partner Carl Daft came in at just the right time to help Van Bebber finish, and now, for fans of this ferocious take on the Manson Family we are now treated to a special edition Blu-ray of the movie with new extras that even include Van Bebber’s return behind the camera with the 16 minute short Gator Green.

The story of Charles Manson and his group of followers known as the “Manson Family” has been told before (Specifically in Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter) but the actual Manson Family hasn’t gotten the attention that thankfully Van Bebber gives the likes of Tex Watson (Michael Pitman), Leslie van Houten (Amy Yates) Patty Krenwinkle (Leslie Orr). 

In many ways these lost souls are much more interesting and frightening as Charlie himself. Leading up to the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders, we get to become a member of this group of psychotic lemmings - almost watching over the shoulders them as they commit these crimes. The structure is non-linear here but still contains a lot of facts from the case and an approach to filming that creates a nightmare unlike anything put forth in a true-crime based picture. Some of the visuals are absolutely ghastly, as they should be considering the content. 

Movie Review: Of Dolls and Murder (2011)

Movie review by Greg Goodsell


Directed By Susan Marks

Frances Glessner Lee (1878 – 1962), was a dear little old lady born of the Victorian era. A millionaire heiress, her parents sent her brother off to Ivy league schools while she was expected to stay home and marry the right man. Marrying at the ago of 20, Lee mothered three children but ultimately divorced her husband. It was during this time she begun to indulge her passion for crime and punishment -- and murder. 

Introduced to George MaGrath, he introduced Lee to the reality that police detectives weren’t properly trained to process crime scenes for medical evidence. In the Gay Nineties, forensic crime investigations were still in their infancy. recalling her childhood passion for dolls, dollhouse and miniaturizations, Lee began in earnest a series of ghastly tableaux that were to be later called the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Incredibly elaborate and detailed dollhouse scenes, using store-bought dollies -- who were then customized to show expressions of alarm and death -- these nutshells were used as a training tool that allowed budding detectives to arrive at crime scenes to arrive at their own conclusions about the dolls' demises.

Movie Review: Cropsey (2009)

Childhood legends are created to terrify us into being good. There's the Boogeyman, the stranger with the lost dog and a pocket full of candy, and even Santa Claus. On Staten Island in New York, there was the legend of Cropsey. Cropsey was supposedly a mental patient who escaped a place called Willowbrook and murdered children in the night. The filmmakers recall hearing all of that when they were young, and they talk to a few people about it. That's about the first ten minutes, and then they go on to something else that's not really related, but they try to connect it. Most of the documentary has nothing to do with this legend, which did nothing less than annoy the bejesus out of me for the entirety of the film.

Buy Cropsey on DVD