To Catch a Killer (1992)

Sorry, your time is up.The answer, their popularity or connection factor with the viewer was off the charts. Producers knew this and often cast one or the other in the most obscure projects, knowing full well that, when push came to shove, the viewers would watch regardless.With this film, a funny thing happened on the way to what was supposed to be a "casting of convenience." Brian Dennehy gave the performance of his life, at the same time engaging and yet creepy, friendly but dangerous, and the result was that a simple movie became a TV classic almost overnight.Kid you not. The quality of this film is so good it will, I am guessing, hold its own against any subsequent attempts to biopic Gacey.Watch it.

Police detective Joe Korenczak receives a missing person report on teenage boy Chris Gant who was last seen in the company of local businessman John Wayne Gacy . Joe visits the home of Gacy only to find the truculent home owner in no mood to talk since Gacy has just received news of a family tragedy . As Joe digs deeper he finds several more teenage boys have disappeared all of them associated with Gacy who has a previous for sodomy I remember seeing this mini-series many years ago and being hypnotized by Brian Dennehey's performance of John Wayne Gacy . I'd never heard of Gacy before TO CATCH A KILLER but thanks to to this he stuck out in my mind , helped no doubt that the mass murderer shares most of his name with a famous cowboy actor . Dennehey is terrifying in the role but with hindsight he's a little to good . His portrayal as Gacy is a little bit too abrasive , supercilious and intimidating . He effectively has " Evil Serial killer " written on his forehead and instead of the banality of evil we have the arrogance of evil . You'll be puzzled as to why the police didn't catch him sooner The unfortunate thing is that the police should have caught him sooner . . Before TO CATCH A KILLER takes up the story police in Illinois had received complaints about Gacy one of which related to the disappearance of 17 year old John Butokovich whose parents begged police to investigate him but the police did nothing . Gacy you see was a fine upstanding pillar of the community active in committees and local politics rubbing shoulders with the great and good . You can just imagine the parents of the disappeared wailing that Gacy knows more than he's letting on and the police dismissing them that anyone having their photo taken with the first lady is incapable of being a murderer This is at odds with the dramatized events of TO CATCH A KILLER . From the outset we know Gacy is guilty as does police detective Korenczak . It's almost as though this miniseries has been written for the benefit of the Illinois police making them less culpable of gullibility at the hands of Gacy but this ends up becoming totally ironic as Dennehey growls and sneers and effectively says " Come and get me coppers " from the very outset of the mini-series . The police here are so short of leads they have to contact a psychic for leads but the truth is complaints had been made about Gacy for several years before and no one in authority joined up the dots

This is one of my favorite serial killers. John Wayne Gaycy is one of the most evil serial killers who ever existed in my opinion and Brian Dennehy makes him Gacy look good. The story and acting is outstanding. To bad these kind of movies aren't made today, but this you don't want to miss so if you haven't seen "To catch a killer" already, please see it! It is hard to believe that Eric Till who directed this movie has also directed "Fraggle Rock" and "A Muppet Family Christmas". It's 2 different categories, but Eric did a great job directing "To catch a killer". I have always loved true stories about serial killers and this is absolutely one of the best movies, based on a true killer that I have ever seen. I would gladly give this 10/10, but probably because Brian does such a convincing job. I really wish there were new of these good old movies made. But today most of the movies are not all to good I am afraid. It was like watching "Dahmer" from 2002 after seeing "The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer" from 1993. It's really quite a difference. Anyway, do see "To catch a killer". It is really one of the best movies ever made.

Excellent suspense for about 3 hours starting from minute 1. Seldom have I seen a movie that hooked me so much as this one, even after watching it over and over again. Brian Dennehy has shown the best performance in his lifetime. You just sense the evil inside and his performance as an actor should have had a lot more attention, because it's one of the best acting performances I've ever seen.I mean, I love Tom Hanks and Spencer Tracy and I think they're one of the best actors the world has seen, but sometimes a second ranked actor shows a performance that equals top actors like Spencer and Tom; Brian Dennehy is one of them in this movie.All the actors play very convincing and the movie has dozens of moments that I will never forget. 3 hours of suspense without a drop of blood and compelling from start to end; I find that a major achievement. Not one single moment the movie is slow or boring. What I also really like about the movie is its pace; it's going faster and faster towards the end and this has partly to with the actual story and it makes you so eager to look forward to how it ends. The movie doesn't have any famous actors, director, story writers and never got any major attention, but it sure is a classic in my opinion.There are only 3-5 movies (and I'm an older person who's addicted to movies since the day he was born) that really stand out in the history of film-making and this is one of them and the only one in my top 50 list without the famous cast, director or all the major publicity.A must see!