Son of Sam (2008) (V)

Director:

Ulli Lommel

Writer:

Ulli Lommel (written by)

Release Date:

9 September 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

The Bloody Summer of 1977

Cast

Yogi Joshi	...	Berkowitz
Elissa Dowling	...	Brenda Klein (as Elissa Bree)
Jamie Bernadette	...	Sara Greenwood
Cassandra Church
Bertrand Pare		(as Betrand Pare)
Boston Dawna Chaet		(as Dawna Chaet)
Kent Cady
Bill Maniscalco		(as William Maniscalco)
Carie Maniscalco
Mary Shaffo
Jason Harrell
Marissa Elizabeth Viszolay
Kika LaSorda
Karlee Combs
Scott Espenshade

MPAA:

Rated R for violent content and language.

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:MA (2008)

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Hollywood House of Horror

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Ulli Lommel]A carved wooden crucifix.

Movie Connections:

References 54 (1998)

Lommel Continues

Son of Sam (2008)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

German director Ulli Lommel is back once again with yet another true life serial killer flick. This time out we travel to New York in 1977 when David Berkowitz (Yogi Joski) would have the entire city in terror and become known as the Son of Sam. As of me writing this Lommel had done thirteen of these films and this here is the tenth one that I've seen. Lommel has also gone outside the serial killer mode in the past few years with ZOMBIE NATION and THE TOMB but no matter which film you look out it's going to be pretty bad, which is a shame since this is the same guy who delivered the cult classic THE BOOGEY MAN. This film here is actually one of Lommel's best in years and certainly ranks higher than many films in this series but there are still way too many problems for the film to work. On a technical level the movie is a step up as it appear Lommel actually took his time to film it. Previous films were full of errors but at least those aren't here. The performances are all stale to say the least but Joski isn't too bad. The low-budget nature of the film is all over the place with the lack of any real special effects and some of the silly camera shots. If you've never seen any of these serial killer films before then you're probably going to be thinking this is an extremely poor movie. If you've seen previous ones and walk into this expecting something horrid, you might surprise yourself with a bad movie but one that's a step up from the others. The real nail in the coffin comes during all the scenes dealing with the devil worshipping and possession. These scenes are just repeated throughout the movie and they become quite tiresome after a while. Had the director stayed more focuses on the killer and his attorney things might have been even better.