Movie monsters: Serial Killers

Both "Psycho" and "Hannibal" are now showing on SKY, and the movies provided me with the next set of movie monsters in my horror thread (which I've sadly overlooked since my last post).

By the way, I decided on watching Psycho, which is far superior in my opinion.

To me, boogeymen like Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers aren't really scary at all. Even if you see them swallow a grenade about to explode, you'll know they'll be back from the dead, with more unbelievable means to slice 'n dice their obligatory teen victims (I had hopes for Jeepers Creepers, but that's gone the way of the standard supernatural slasher movie)...

It's the believable loonies that are unsettling, the ones with a chainsaw, or axe, or some other nasty item somewhere deep in the heart of Nowheresville. These types scare the holy bejezus out of me and Wednesday Addams sums up my fears perfectly, when asked about her Halloween costume in the Addams Family film:

"I'm a homicidal maniac, they look just like everyone else."

Anyway on with my movie serial killers top five (SPOILER THREAT)...

Joint Fifth:
Bob Rusk/The Necktie Killer (Barry Foster) - Frenzy (1972): Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), a temperamental former Royal Air Force officer, is wrongfully accused of several sex-murders, including the deaths of his ex-wife and girlfriend. Sent to jail, Blaney seeks to expose the real murderer - his mate, Bob Rusk (Barry Foster).
Apparently Michael Caine turned down the part of Bob Rusk, because he thought the character was disgusting. Caine was right - Rusk is disgusting, more so (in my opinion) than the transvestite serial killer Caine would later play in the 1980 Brian De Palma thriller Dressed t>o Kill. Foster (of Van Der Valk fame) is sinister, almost shark-like as the genial London greengrocer who loves his mother, but has evil intents towards the opposite sex. Frenzy is a disturbing, even nasty movie. Yet it has one standout scene worthy of its director, Alfred Hitchcock. The camera slowly tracks out from Rusk's flat, into the busy Covent Gardan>en street. We have just seen Rusk escort Blaney's girlfriend Barbara "Babs" Milligan into his flat, and as he utters "I don't know if you know it, Babs, but you're my type of woman", we grimly realise Babs is going to be the next victim of the Necktie Killer.

Joint Fifth:
Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) - The Silence of The Lambs (1991) - I always thought Bran Cox as Hannibal Lecktor (Manhunter) was just as good, even though his screen time was limited. In Manhunter, Lecktor came across as a really mundane and detached killer.
But Hopkins was easily at his calculating best in "Silence" - his Lecter is remorseless, intelligent, cold and in control. Even while behind bars, you feel Lecter is one step ahead of the rest. Sadly in the following sequels, Lecter became an "okey dokey" slasher-movie caricature, which diluted Hopkins' original impact in my eyes (otherwise I would have rated Lecter higher).

Fourth:
Henry (Michael Rooker) - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) - based on the true life serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas, Henry is your average guy-next-door, who shares a grotty apartment with his ex-con buddy Otis and Otis' sister, Becky. We learn that Henry also murdered his mother, and is a serial killer who will kill total strangers at random.
Michael Rooker is chilling as Henry, but Otis is more repellent in my opinion - he has vile thoughts about his sister, joins Henry on his murderous exploits with gusto and appears thoroughly amoral (compared to Henry, who does has some morals - when he's not killing people).
Another disturbing movie; all-too-realistic, bleak and ultimately dispiriting - "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" is not wholesome entertainment for the family and leaves me thinking that Wednesday Addams was spot on - homicidal maniacs look just like anyone else....

Third:
John Doe (Kevin Spacey) - Se7en (1995) - a modern celluloid masterpiece, Se7en is about two police detectives - one brand-new to the job and the other on the verge of retirement (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman respectively), chasing a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his "inspiration" for a series of murders.
Spacey gave a great performance portraying the emotionless John Doe, a self-appointed judge, jury and executioner on our society. In Doe's opinion, our culture is beyond redemption. In his demented eyes, "we see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night". Even the relentless rain in the film appears to add to the atmosphere of dread that permeates Se7en, and one feels as trapped by Doe's insanity as Pitt & Freeman, once his master plan is laid bare (I won't be revealing John Doe's master plan here - suffice to say it's a "WTF?" moment).

Second:
Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) & family- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - this groundbreaking movie is relentless. Forget the sequels and the remake, the original film is an assault on the senses and Leatherface's mad chainsaw pirouette still chills to the bone.
The plot is standard (the movie was very loosely based on serial killer Ed Gein) - a group of teens stray into the wrong part of Texas, and encounter an insane chainsaw wielding killer (Leatherface) and his equally insane, grave-robbing, cannibalistic family.
But forget the plot - this movie is an uncompromising descent into madness. I remember watching this for the first time as a "video nasty" passed to me from my mates and at the time, I just thought - this is true horror. I still get the creeps watching this low-budget horror flick.

Numero Uno:
Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) - Psycho (1960) - like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho is also based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein, and is amongst the most scariest of them all as far as I'm concerned. The infamous "Shower Scene" where Janet Leigh's character meets her fate, is now the stuff of celluloid legend, and as for the look on Norman's "mother's" face, as he says:

"They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, 'Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly...'."

That scene always chills me to the bone.

As with Texas Chainsaw, the less said about the Psycho sequels and the remake, the better. Alfred Hitchcock's original still has the power to instill fear, even though it's almost 50 years old.