Reaper (2000)

Excellent but underrated film

Best movie ever!

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.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A coastal Maine town is rocked by two vicious murders to traveling females which are similar to the deaths within a visiting troubled writer's novel, "The Reaper".Famous novelist Luke Sinclair(Chris Sarandon), notorious for his grisly, detailed violence in his books, is struggling through writer's block deciding to get away for a spell hoping to tap into the primal side that unleashes the creativity which yields the stories that have made him such a success. He believes we all have an ability, primal, to kill, but many of us know how to control it. Government sends a forensic pathologist, Sonya Lehrman(Catherine Mary Stewart) to the town to assist the sheriff's department in the case. Sheriff Norris(Vlasta Vrana)doesn't make it easy for Sonya, as he's not used to being ordered around "by a girl." Sonya tries to cope with Norris' "backwards ways" while trying to find the serial killer before he copycats the final murder from the "Reaper" novel. Luke seems to know a great deal about how the murders might've occurred as Sonya interviewed him, probing his thoughts and feelings on the two open cases. His boozing, and not taking prescribed pills to assist a mental disorder certainly don't help Luke's standing while a killer is being pursued. Understanding the psychology of the killer also makes him an ideal suspect. Slowly Sonya begins to develop feelings for Luke as his life begins to crumble due to alcoholism, a souring marriage, and media coverage of his possible criminal involvement in a double-murder case. The film also offers a possibility of Sheriff Norris' less than polished career as a Boston detective and certain knowledge of a tattoo found on the second victim.To be honest, without some nudity(..the sight of two naked bodies, not exactly elaborating too much as the director does a good job of removing the camera shortly after we first see them)and coarse language, "Reaper" actually plays like a Lifetime movie. The violence in this film is more discussed in details than shown. The film is quite dialogue, and performance driven. It's overall a detective thriller with multiple red herrings used to throw the viewer of the scent of who the killer really is. Some soapy melodrama thrown in with Luke and Sonya's developing feelings adding a bit of spice to the proceedings.

Chris Sarandon plays Luke Sinclair a writer of horror novels so controversial he occasionaly finds himself becoming the victim of assault which led me to ask how would a writer be so infamous that he`dsuffer from this type of hatred ? It`s similar to Liam Neeson`s character in THE DEAD POOL , a director of horror films so violent he`s treated as a danger to society . Is there any film maker so unpopular they`d find themself a hate figure ? Mind you I sometimes get nasty PMs from people who disagree with my reviews on this site and I do know many people who write far less subjective or polemical reviews who continually receive nasty hurtful comments . I guess there`s a lot of nasty people around and a writer being assaulted by self styled moral guardians isn`t as far fetched as it first seemed As for the rest of REAPER it`s far from being a classic thriller and it does suffer from one too many plot twists at the end , but I don`t think it`s as bad as it could have been either . To the film`s credit Luke Sinclair is written and played as an unlikable anti hero unlike many of these thrillers where a writer is the main character , and despite a slightly cliched view of hick small town cops at least you recognise why they suspect Luke might have something to hide being a writer who writes about viscous murders

An alcoholic horror novelist (Chris Sarandon), suffering from writer's block, agonizes over his next novel while a real-life serial killer stalks small-town Maine. Catherine Mary Stewart and Vlasta Vrana co-star as the cops on the trail, but the real mystery here is why these three talented actors accepted a payday in this anaemic, sleep-inducing whodunit. I guess it was just that -- a payday.Maine's premiere horror novelist, Stephen King, has nothing to fear from this Canadian thriller (and I use that word loosely) -- there are enough red herrings and telegraphed punches here that director Bradshaw should have issued a spoiler warning. You don't need Sherlock Holmes to solve this one.

Chris Sarandon plays a famous murder-mystery writer who has become tired of life, and who has not been able to write in over 18 months. He's tired of the harrassment he's been getting from religious extremists who think that the grisly realism with which he writes means that he's in league with devil, and from his publisher who says he's three months overdue with his next book, and especially from his wife, who appears to find fault with everything he does.So he goes up the coast to get away from it all, to see if he can get through his writers' block. By not taking his medication, and avoiding sobriety, he hopes to get back in touch with "the savage instincts within every man" which was responsible for the scary realism of his books.The trouble is that murders start happening nearby, each one an exact copy of the murders in his famous book "Reaper". Not only that, but there's a page from his book on each of the victims' bodies, the exact page that describes the murder! So he's number one suspect, and is hauled in for questioning.All good murder mysteries keep you guessing who the real murderer is, and this film is one of the best! Just when you think you've worked out who the real murderer is, other evidence keeps coming up, first pointing one way, then the other.If you love a good murder mystery, this is the film for you. And if you don't love them, then this is the film which will change your mind!