A Killing In A Small Town [VHS]

Description

Product Description Barbara Hershey stars as a Texan housewife who appears to be a woman much like any other. But then she goes and kills her best friend by striking her many times with an axe. Arrested and placed in psychiatric care, the woman soon reveals a disturbing second personality. From .co.uk Should you ever meet Brian Dennehy, there's no need to be afraid. Beneath that creepy, intimidating manner, those squinting, inquisitive eyes, there's no bogeyman lurking in wait: just an underrated middle-aged character actor who keeps getting typecast as rotten apples and bad pennies. Bad pennies, in fact, like John Wayne Gacy, the notorious serial killer, whose public face as a pillar of the civic community--he even used to dress up as a clown for local children' parties--disguised, at least temporarily, his sadistic homicidal tendencies. (Incidentally, he was also the inspiration for the Anthony Perkins character in Psycho and the transvestite serial killer in Silence of the Lambs.) Rather than attempting any kind of profound analysis of its subject, the made-for-TV film To Catch a Killer--as you might expect, given its title--instead concentrates on the attempt to ensnare him at last, led by pedestrian but stoical police-chief Joe Kozenczak (Michael Riley)--whose desperation to halt Gacy in his tracks eventually leads to calling in a psychic (Margot Kidder, a long way from her supposed big break in Superman). While director Eric Till never achieves much more than a simple, if unsettlingly atmospheric, recreation of events, he exhibits a sharp eye for detail, and an intelligence rare among movies made for the small-screen. But, of course, this is really Brian Dennehy's film: it's his presence which lends the project its authority, and his (frequently overlooked) acting prowess which gives it a foundation. --Danny Leigh