Freeway Killer

2009 "Based on the true story of William Bonin, California's most notorious serial murderer."
5.4| 1h28m| R| en
Details

For years he terrorized California motorists as he rode the endless highways searching for his next victim. The discarded bodies turned up beaten, sexually assaulted and horribly mutilated. Deceptively charming and intelligent, the scheming murderer easily avoided police at first. But as police closed in and the killer’s pattern grew more erratic, the only question was how many more will die?

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Reviews

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
MarieGabrielle It is interesting to see Leet in the principal role of Freeway killer William Bonin, who apparently was an extremely disturbed individual who also teamed up with young boys he either picked up hitchhiking, or at local parties in the area of Southern Los Angeles.The product of a pedophile grandfather and alcoholic mother (we only see a glimpse of his mother, a psychological wreck for certain). Yet none of the back-story of Bonin can explicate the heinous acts of kidnapping and torture he put his victims through, in real life.There is also an odd scene where his friend "Vern" is dressed as wizard, into the occult and Tarot cards, and helps host parties to attract young boys. (Reminiscent of John Wayne Gacy, Des Plaines Illinois serial killer).Actor Michael Rooker (from JFK film), is excellent as the detective who finally trails the killer, there is an especially good scene at a local newsstand, while Bonin is salivating over the headlines and murders, Rooker is observing him casually. Then Bonin suddenly turns to him to try and out him as a detective. If you like this type film you may also be interested in "The Hillside Stranglers" with Billy Zane and Dennis Farina as the killers (actually a good true crime story due for a re-make). As well as the Gacy film with Brian Dennehy, in the lead role as John Wayne Gacy.The story is based on facts, and a cautionary tale for random young people who will just trust any stranger. This story shows,no matter how friendly a sociopath may seem, they are chameleons, and capable of anything. You may also like criminologist author Michael Schecter's book "Serial Killers" . truly surreal and horrifying.8/10
strizbiz OK, I don't want to say this movie had a "great " plot because the actual events were horrible and tragic. But the source material and all the information surrounding it was enough to give to writer and director what they needed to make this a chilling , horror classic. Though I was actually a little young at the time of these events , seeing the story on an episode of "very bad men " on ID channel made me want to take a closer look at this story. Anyway to be honest, this felt so much like a b movie, the acting, directing, the editing, even the music , that even though I sat through it, I didn't feel the performances where believable. I see some of the reviewers here are commending Scott Anthony Leet for his acting but I just didn't get it. It was a little over the top at times but forgettable. I don't believe you need a big Hollywood budget to make this movie great because it doesn't require a bunch go cgi effect or anything. It needs a great director. And a major part of what really happened was left out. I just felt like this was a missed opportunity. This movie just wasn't as dark as it needed to be in light of the tragedy of the real life events. The over all tone was just amateurish.
Daniel Ispas I live in Romania, we don't get that many movies on DVD, especially movies like this one. I am a big horror fan, so when I looked on my torrents site and I've that this movie it's billed as horror, crime, thriller, I instantly downloaded it.It has a low budget, and you can see that, especially cause this movie is set in the late 70s, but the cars are from nowadays. But it doesn't matter. Scott Lee as William Bonin is great ! I never heard about this guy, but I was really impressed and I will keep an eye on his works.It's a great little movie, with unknown actors, that makes wonder what's gonna happen.8/10
sarlex85 The movie itself wasn't so bad. However the storyline could've been fleshed out a little bit more. My pet peeve was that the movie was filled with so many Anochronisms, it threw the story off a bit. This was set around 1979-1980, but it looked very low budget. There were modern cars everywhere, besides the ones used by the actors themselves. The convenience store was riddled with current versions of consumer products, Bonin's alarm clock was digital, etc. Just seems like they didn't make a good effort at setting the theme of the movie to have been in the past. It was shot more like a student film on a shoestring budget.