An Amish Murder (2013)

We watched this movie on Netflix streaming movies. It was made as a TV movie to run over a two hour time interval and as such has frequent fades to black for TV commercials.Neve Campbell is Kate Burkholder coming back to her small home community after being gone some 18 years. We only learn very gradually why she has been gone and why her family shun her. She has returned as Chief of Police. Shades of Margie in "Fargo."Only six months back, she and her department are confronted with a gruesome murder, the partially clad body of a young woman is found in a snowy field just a stone's throw off the highway. Kate immediately realizes she was an Amish girl.Kate was born and raised Amish but she left that life, therefore by Amish rules she had to be shunned. Even by her brother, Christian Campbell (her real-life brother) as Jacob (yaa-cobb) Burkholder, but they eventually have to work together to solve the crime.Another key character is old veteran C. Thomas Howell as elected Sheriff Nathan Detrick.This is a small movie with moderate production values but it has an interesting story, if not unique.SPOILERS: While investigating another is found dead, this time the young gymnast daughter of the Mayor. Kate manages to piece together a theory of why the serial killer had been inactive in the area for some years, she correctly figured out it was Detrick who had gone to Alaska for a while. Kate gets captured by Detrick, she plans to hang her upside down and bleed her out like all the others, but help arrives just in time.

I saw this movie a few days after i finished reading the book. I know it's very difficult too get the atmosphere from a book on the screen. The book is from Linda Castillo and I loved it. The film is about 85 minutes and is 35 minutes too short to get the story good covered. The story and cast are OK but it did not got the atmosphere from the book right,the book is darker and the violence is crueler.The rating would be higher because of the violence. Also, just near the end, You know who is the killer and it surprises You. That is how a thriller should be,not knowing for a long time who did it. I watched the movie till the end and had a bit of a hangover. Why a summary of a book when you could make more of it and do more right to the book. That of course, happens a lot ,with books being filmed. I hope you will read the book as well after watching this movie. I think you will agree with me. When you don't know the book and just watch this movie, You still have a raeasonably time,but it could have been better.

An Amish Murder (2013)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Incredibly good made-for-TV thriller about former Amish woman Kate Kurkholder (Neve Campbell) who left her people only to return years later as a cop in the small town. Her people have turned their back on her but she needs their help when a serial killer appears to have returned to the town killing young girls and a secret from her past might reveal who it is. AN AMISH MURDER actually turned out to be one of the best thrillers I've seen in several years, which is somewhat shocking because a lot of TV movies just don't really do much except try to keep someone entertained for a short time. This film here clearly wanted to do so much more because it gave us a terrific mystery that keeps you guessing, a lot of character development and it also builds up some wonderful tension as everything plays out. I must admit that I thought I had figured out who the killer was by the ten-minute mark but I was completely wrong and all the twists and turns are just so good that one can't help but really be on the edge of their seat as everything plays out. I also thought the film did a good job with the main character's development because we get to see her in her new life but also see what haunts her from her Amish years. I thought the way the film showed the Amish people was quite good and it also managed to make you understand why the family would turn their back on her. There's a second subplot dealing with the woman's relationship with a profiler (Noam Jenkins) who is suffering from his own haunted past. Campbell really turns in one of the best performances of her career because she just adds so much depth to the character. She does a remarkable job showing the various emotions with this character and she's completely believable in the role. Jenkins is also terrific in his role as is C. Thomas Howell who plays the sheriff. Director Stephen Gyllenhaal does a very good job at keeping the film moving at a fast pace and thankfully he really brings a terrific atmosphere as well as some very tense moments. AN AMISH MURDER might have worked even better as a theatrical film since the dark subject matter could have shown more but there's still no question that it's one of the better thrillers in recent years.

This movie was mostly boring, they left out a lot of important information from the book (including most of the relationship between John and Kate and what happened to John's family plus their drug and alcohol dependencies). They also did not include a few of the murders which might have helped to make this story more interesting. It might have helped if they stayed truer to the book, showed the relationship between Kate and John, showed what happened to John and how he ended up in this town (his supervisor trying to fire him for failing his drug test)and maybe gone into more the back story from the original murders and how they figured out it was the Sheriff who committed the crimes.I definitely recommend people read this book though, the series is rather interesting. Skip the movie if you have read the book, it does not do it justice at all.