Freeway Killer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		1.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		1.5

Freeway Killer Blu-ray Movie Review

Leave this one by the side of the road.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater February 27, 2010

Before David Fincher’s Zodiac, before Red Dragon, Hannibal, and The Silence of the Lambs, there was director John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, a gruesome and realistic headtrip through one week in the life of a murder-addicted psychopath. Loosely based on the killing spree of Henry Lee Lucas and his accomplice, Ottis Toole, Henry was unique for its time in the way that it tried to parse the mind of an unrepentant predator, played by Michael Rooker, viewing Henry not as some faceless, soulless bogeyman—like Jason, Freddy, and Michael Meyers—but as a real person, with real, albeit twisted, motivations. The film is also a kind of cinematic experiment, gauging its audience’s reaction to and perception of the atrocities committed on-screen. The Freeway Killer has a lot in common with Henry—Michael Rooker even shows up in an extended cameo—but it’s far less effective dramatically and doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be: a character study or a trashy piece of true crime exploitation. It tries to be both, and in the process, it comes off as shallow, a me- too copycat killer that can’t quite match Henry’s grim and psychologically revealing modus operandi.

First rule of 1970s period pieces: Don't have Starbucks Frappuccinos in the convenience store fridge.

In the late 1970s, southern California cops were baffled by a string of remarkably similar murders, where the victims—all male—were casually dumped on the side of the road. While initially suspected to be the work of one man, it was eventually discovered that there were three separate “Freeway Killers,” all working independently of one another. The film never mentions this, and focuses solely on William Bonin, a troubled Vietnam veteran and repeat sex offender who was inexplicably paroled twice and then went on to rape and murder at least 21 teenage boys and young men during his year-long killing spree. His technique was simple: he’d prowl the streets in what has come, in the modern parlance, to be called a “rapist van”—you know the sort, dark, windowless, discrete—and pick up hitchhikers, drifters, and naïve school kids. After getting all buddy-buddy with his victims, usually by getting them high or drunk, he would strike out suddenly, hogtie and sexually assault them, and then strangle them using his signature windlass technique, which involved twisting a t-shirt around their necks using a tire iron. What was particularly strange about Bonin, however—not that killing someone with a t-shirt and tire iron isn’t strange—was that, unlike most serial killers, he often worked with accomplices. In fact, Bonin was quite the charismatic figure, grooming and guiding his hand-picked partners in crime through the act of murder as if it were a rite of passage.

The Freeway Killer, then, by focusing on these manipulative relationships, tries to overturn the myth of the serial killer as a lone wolf. Former football player Scott Leet plays Bonin, and the film picks up in the middle of the murderer’s spree, as he works with seedy cohort Vernon Butts (Dusty Sorg) to con young, desperate hitchhikers into taking their last rides. Bonin and Butts—there’s a thematically appropriate joke in there somewhere, but I won’t make it— have a mentor/trainee partnership that borders on spousal. “I did my first kill with him, man,” says Butts, “and that’s a bond.” The two have been at it for several months, as evidenced by their “family album,” which is filled with Polaroids of their victims’ corpses, but the balance of trust is disrupted when Bonin recruits a new helpmate, Kyle (Cole Williams), a baby-faced convenience store clerk with woman troubles. Kyle was supposed to be one of Bonin’s kills, but when he confesses, while high, to having sick thoughts, Bonin sees a chance to add another member to his perverse little family. You can probably see where this is going. Butts’ jealously grows as Bonin spends more and more time with Kyle, and the bizarre quasi-love triangle eventually unhinges altogether as Bonin loses control of his bloodlust and grows increasingly more paranoid. Cue Michael Rooker as an undercover cop out to bust the case of the Freeway Killer.

The film tries desperately to get inside the mind of a murderer, but it’s constantly thwarted by budgetary constraints, a stilted script, and awkward, hammy performances. The story is set, of course, in the late 1970s, but the film simply doesn’t have the resources to pull off a convincing period look. There are anachronisms everywhere, and if you told me the film takes place in the present day, I’d totally buy it, as even the costuming fails to capture the post-Vietnam era’s distinct fashions. I have nothing against low-budget productions—see how effectively Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer used its paltry $100k, for instance—but Freeway Killer feels decidedly cheap, especially when it comes to the uninspired cinematography (which includes, during the driving scenes, one of the most jarring, obvious uses of rear screen projection I’ve seen in a modern film). Thematically, the film seems conflicted. Is it a biopic? William: Portrait of a Different Serial Killer? A schlocky, z-grade bit of exploitation titillation? It’s certainly not strictly beholden to the actual facts of William Bonin’s life, it’s neither psychologically insightful nor particularly thrilling, and even gorehounds will be disappointed by the relative lack of viscera. While largely bloodless, the murder scenes are still sickening, and the only feeling I left the film with was one of indifferent disgust. Unlike Henry, which has a certain intentionality to its depravity, The Freeway Killer is, in my estimation, pointless, a gratuitous slap-in-the-face to William Bonin’s tortured and sexually abused victims. The final nail in the film’s coffin? Scott Leet basically steals every one of Jack Nicholson’s facial expressions from The Shining and uses them as the basis for his over-the-top performance. Give him an ax and tell him to snarl, “Here’s Johnny!” and it would look like he’s doing a parody on SNL.

Freeway Killer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Freeway Killer was shot on…I dunno, SD video? Really bad high definition cameras? Poorly transferred 16mm? Honestly, the 1080p/AVC-encoded image is so blurry and indistinct that it's hard to tell. Since I can't dig up any technical specs online, I'll hazard a guess and say this was shot on some sort of video. In the commentary track, director John Murlowski talks about serving as his own DP, but judging from the outcome, maybe it wasn't such a good idea. The picture is consistently soft and gauzy, as if someone had taken a normal high definition image and smeared it with Vaseline. Even in the tightest close-ups, fine detail, like skin texture and eye lashes, is completely missing. Color reproduction fares slightly better, but not by much. The film has a dim, murky look—once again, like a modern Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer—with colors that are muted and thin, with few exceptions, like the blue exterior of Bonin's van. Black levels are adequate during the daytime scenes, but the darker sequences are hazy, with detail frequently lost in opaque shadows. Noise is also erratic, sometimes buzzing heavily over the image, sometimes nearly absent, and sometimes both within the same scene. I've seen upscaled DVDs that look much better than this.

Freeway Killer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is at least a step up from the video quality, and while you won't confuse this with, say, Transformers 2, the mix is more than adequate for an ultra-low budget serial killer flick. The surround channels aren't incredibly active, but you will hear some neighborhood ambience and a few oh, look, they tried panning effects, like Bonin's van moving from left to right through the rear speakers. The score is forgettable, and at times anachronistic, but I was impressed by the pulsing LFE drone that the film often uses to underscore the more horrific moments. The various gruesome sound effects are also appropriately squishy and disgusting, and the dialogue throughout is well-balanced and easy to understand.

Freeway Killer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Commentary by Director John Murlowski and Writer David Birke
Murlowski and Birke discuss the real William Bonin, the research that went into the project, and the limitations of trying to film a 1970s period piece on a low budget—among the usual behind-the- scenes anecdotes and technical details—but this isn't a particularly gripping track.

Freeway Killer: Captured (SD, 11:28)
Your average low-budget behind-the-scenes featurette, including interviews with all the primary cast members, as well as director John Murlowski and screenwriter David Birke. Most of the focus here is on the acting—the film's weakest link, in my opinion.

Trailer (SD, 1:40)

Freeway Killer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have nothing good to say about The Freeway Killer, a film that can't even be recommended on the basis of shock value. True crime fans may briefly get a sick thrill from all the vicarious murdering, but most viewers will cringe and reach for the remote. This film also boasts the worst picture quality I've personally seen so far this year. Be wise and refuse to enter The Freeway Killer's creepy van.