The Alphabet Killer (2008)

Based on the true story of the double initial killings in Rochester, NY.

Director:

Rob Schmidt

Writer:

Tom Malloy

Stars:

Eliza Dushku, Cary Elwes, Timothy Hutton

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eliza Dushku	...	Megan Paige
Cary Elwes	...	Kenneth Shine
Timothy Hutton	...	Richard Ledge
Tom Malloy	...	Officer Steven Harper
Michael Ironside	...	Captain Nathan Norcross
Bill Moseley	...	Carl Tanner
Carl Lumbly	...	Dr. Ellis Parks
Brian Scannell	...	Jay Castillo
Larry Hankin	...	Perry
Jack McGee	...	Hank
Melissa Leo	...	Kathy Walsh
Andrew Fiscella	...	Len Schafer
Rocco Sisto	...	Father McQuarrie
Tom Noonan	...	Ray Gullikson
Frank Rossi	...	Francis Baker

Storyline

In Rochester, a pre-teen girl is abducted, raped, and murdered. Detective Megan Paige investigates: she works long hours obsessively, and soon she's seeing visions of the dead girl. The FBI profiles the killer as a spontaneous drifter, lucky not to get caught; Megan thinks he's local and a methodical planner. She notes that the victim's first and last names and the place the body was left start with "C." When a second murder follows the same pattern, Megan is vindicated, but her obsessions get the best of her, and her mental state impedes her work. With the help of medication, therapy, and a friend, can she regain her equilibrium and catch the alphabet killer?

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Plot Keywords:

seeing dead people | schizophrenia | based on true story | running for your life | trip and fall | 

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Taglines:

Based on a true story.

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 December 2009 (Kuwait)

Also Known As:

O Assassino do Alfabeto

Filming Locations:

East Rochester, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,000, 9 November 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$29,784, 12 December 2008

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$106,596, 22 September 2013

Company Credits

Production Co:

Intrinsic Value Films,New Films International,WideyeCreative Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is dedicated in memory of Stuart Rosenberg, mentor of the director.

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Goofs

Towards the end of the movie, Richard tells Maegan that she is going to take a trip down "The Geneseo", The river running through Rochester is " The Genesee " River. Geneseo, is a town about 45 minutes south of Rochester.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Megan Paige: Mostly the job is to ask questions. The frustrating part, the part that drives you crazy, is that the people you really want to talk to are dead.

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Connections

References The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

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Soundtracks

Skeleton (She's So Cool)
Written by Nils Alpha / Jukka Sebatian
Performed by Alpha Kids

User Reviews

Nothing good can come from this picture

With no originality at all and plenty of bad things in its core, "The Alphabet Killer" comes to ruin what could be a good story about the real events surrounding the alphabet killer, a psychopath that kidnapped and killed several girls whose initial letters were the same and he never got caught by the police.

Eliza Dushku plays an detective working on the case, trying to discover who this guy is and trying to recover her own sanity after seeing strange hallucinations and visions of the victims while investigating the case. She gets some help from Timothy Hutton's character, a paraplegic psychologist and from another detective; and doesn't get along with her ex-boyfriend (Cary Elwes) who also covers the case.

So, the movie is more about her traumatic and ridiculous moments than to save lives or catch a killer. The director and writers didn't know how to built a suspense and sustain a mystery, everything is so slow and they didn't know how to scare the audience (although the final revelation of who the killer was is so predictable that you might laugh or say that is unbelievably bad). It's not just that that ruins the film, it is also the twisted moments that Dushku has and we're forced to watch being the worst the scene where she escapes from the hospital where she was held, breaking the arm of a nurse even though she already dominated him, and he couldn't do anything with her. That scene is pathetic, also the scenes with her delusions and the "music in her ears" in the church scene.

"The Alphabet Killer" is filled with bad acting, a story with no involvement, no thrill, nothing. Dushku and Elwes are terrible, what a bomb! What happened to Elwes eyebrow? He looked like a old female witch; and Dushku had the guts to produce something like this. The surprising good acting in this thing comes from Melissa Leo and Martin Donovan playing the parents of the Walsh girl, one of the victims; Jack McGee has some good moments and Timothy Hutton is there for reasons of embarrassment and those things can happen with a previous Oscar winner.

Movies inspired in real events usually are good and I enjoy it, but this one is a almost supernatural dramatic flick who has nothing good in it, a waste of time. Pathetic! 2/10