The Rockville Slayer (2004)

Touches You

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

C R A P PURE CRAP COULD NOT BE WORSE WATCHING ELEPHANTS TAKE A CRAP FOR 3 HOURS WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE ENTERTAINING.this movie was a piece of trash. one star is generous (because IMDb requires you rate, minimum being one star). with virtually no redeeming qualities, the movie drones on and on and on...do not waste your time and watch this made-for-TV pile of crap; the acting sucked (everyone was terrible), and, as i heard from the grapevine, no one got paid. in fact several of the actors paid to be in the film for the sake of posterity and bragging rights.DO NOT WATCH THIS WASTE OF FILM

You know, sometimes you just watch a movie because there is nothing else on television at that time. My friend and I had this DVD and fed it into the DVD player over the weekend because we didn't want to sit and watch all the football games. I think we were both snoozing off by the first 20 minutes or so. I got this movie because I wanted to see Joe Estevez. I met him at a convention 2 years ago and he is really nice. Since then I've watched a few of his movies and they can be decent time-passers. In the case of "Rockville Slayer" I didn't pass much time but I did catch up on some needed Z's.Joe is pretty good in the movie, playing a sheriff in a tiny town. He brought some real gravitas to his role. I liked the way Nicole Buhrer acted. She kind of reminds me of a young Gillian Anderson kind of actress. But only one or two of the other actors was really believable and the story doesn't pack much oomph to it. When I sat down to watch the movie to completion; it took me 3 sittings to do it. I lost track of the story because the first part is about a murderer girl who escapes from a hospital (Amy Brown, reminds me of Beba in "Blood of the Virgins" running around in her nightgown) and then the rest is some kind of melodrama about one of the sheriff's deputies (this guy wasn't too good). And then in the last parts of it it looked like a dubbed movie because the lips didn't match the words a lot of time. Besides that, everything looks nice but nothing keeps me interested. Oh, the one villain guy (Robert Zdar) didn't look nice, wow, so scary looking. My friend didn't want to watch the rest of the movie when she woke up from her nap. I had to sit through it on my own over the last 2 days.So all I can say is that someone put a lot of hard work into making this movie but I wish it was better and more interesting. Even after watching the whole thing I am not sure what kind of movie it was supposed to be.

Surprisingly good film, though I question whether it's a horror film. It opens with a very slasher-esquire scene, and maintains much of that ambiance throughout the film. After that it moves into crime drama territory and the focus for the remainder of the film is on various law enforcement folks. But it also borrows much from the giallo, including changing the character focus, a few red herrings, a killer with black gloves, a lot of twists and turns, and a slightly contrived conclusion that somehow brings resolution. Unfortunately it leaves out the bloody kills. There were a couple of parts that dragged a little but overall the pacing was adequate. This is low budget fare, but if that doesn't bother you and you're looking for a dark crime thriller with a little giallo flavor thrown it then this is worth a look. 7/10. A tiny bit of gore, and a couple of short nude scenes.

The producers are changing the name from Unaware to The Rockville Slayer: it won't help. I think they are changing the name because this was supposed to be marketed as a psychological thriller about knowing who you really are. That whole idea is completely lost in the clumsy writing, middling acting & unimaginative direction. Maybe now the producers think they are going to exploit the angle of the killer on the loose. But there's no terror inflicted by the slayer here. Each scene is lifted from the b-movie play book and you know who is going to get skewered 5 minutes before each plunge of the knife. There's some nice looking newcomers in the cast and they carry most of the action. If you can call it "action." There's a lot of standing around and talking and crying and self-pity. The lead cop is badly miscast. The veterans in the cast are clearly slumming for a check and probably forgot about their visit to the imaginary Rockville the day after their check cleared. Especially wasted are Joe Estevez and Robert Z'Dar. Haggard ex-scream queen Linne'a Quigley has never looked more tired. Whoever photographed her should never work again. I doubt you will ever hear from anyone else listed in the credits. Not worth a video purchase or a rental. Watch The Town That Dreaded Sundown instead.