Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck

Just not a very good film
I know this was a low budget film that went straight to video, still it is worth pointing out to potential viewers that while sometimes this happens to even good films, that isn't the case with this movie.

Poorly filmed, possibly in an unsuccessful effort to appear 'artistic', poorly acted, and very short on reality, this just turns out to be a waste of viewing time for nearly any viewer.

Those interested in 'True Crime' will be turned off by the lack of accuracy, as well as the absence of any real detailed truths. Viewers hungry for 'violence' will be disappoined that only one murder was actually enacted and little gore was depicted and even that will be considered tame and uninteresting by those who enjoy that sort of thing. Inconsistencies will bug even the casual viewer; such as the use of the terms 'forensics' and 'mass murder'; terms not in common usage even by police personnel in 1966. Though mass murder has occurred in the United States long before...

Quickly Made, Cheaply Done
I have got to think that maybe it's not a great idea to make feature length videos about dull-witted and very boring criminals who go on alcohol/drug-induced murder sprees.What we end up seeing is sa dull-witted and boring as the villian we watch, It's just not entertaining.

I knew this was a clunker from the first scene when "Texan" Richard Speck wearing what else but a cowboy hat steals his neighbors car and is chased on foot by a woman calling his name. This is the poorest character/location establishment I've seen outside an elementary school production.

Other lowpoints (or lowerpoints I should say) are the sole survivor Filipina nurse who confronts Speck in court. Here's a woman the viewer might want to empathise with, but not so. The actresses performance couldn't be crappier or more unbelievable had it been on Lifetime channel.
Locations are often poor. The crime scene could have used a few extras playing cops, as the only people who seem to be at...

A less than satisfying telling of the story of mass murderer Richard Speck
With a true crime story you would think the goal is to show what happened and to try and explain why it happened. The standard for such endeavors would be films like "In Cold Blood" and mini-series such as "Helter Skelter." There will be inevitable questions about how much you actually show and whether the explanations will prove at all satisfactory. "Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck" is about the murder of the eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966, which happens to be the first headline crime that I remember after the assassination of JFK. Way back then I was unaware of the story of Ed Gein or the way everything would seem to change after the Manson murders, and long before Michael Meyers) upped the ante in teh cinematic world of splatter flicks. After watching this...

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