Grim and disturbing portrait of Richard Speck (a creepy and convincing performance by Doug Cole), a remorseless serial killer who raped and murdered eight young nursing students in Chicago, Illinois on July 13, 1966. Director Keith Walley, working from a tight script by Don Adams and Aaron Pope, pulls no punches in his graphic and upsetting depiction of Speck as a monstrous brute: Speck's sadistic thoughts serve as a kind of nihilistic narration, the moments of savage violence pack a ferocious punch, there's a good deal of nerve-wracking tension, the tone is suitably bleak and unsettling, and the stark terror and utter helplessness of the scared victims is vividly rendered in a most unnerving manner. Moreover, this movie doesn't really try to explain why Speck did what he did; instead it merely shows that this guy was a cold-blooded psycho through and through. The actresses who play the victims do credible work in their roles. Kirk Douglas' stylized cinematography gives the picture an appropriately grungy yellowish look. The shuddery score by Walley and Lance Bachelder does the skin-crawling trick. A gut-wrenching film.
Review of Speck
