Hell hath no fury... (Letters from the Killer (DVD))

Member Name: Belgian999

Product:	Letters from the Killer (DVD)
Date:	11/10/01 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Has the potential to be a decent film...

Disadvantages: But never comes anywhere close!

...like a woman scorned. That could easily have been chosen as the title of this film, but then ‘How the Mighty Have Fallen’ would have been just as appropriate. I remember, many years ago, watching ‘Red Dawn’, a film starring some young kid called Patrick Swayze, and being captivated by it. In all honesty, it wasn’t that good a film, but Swayze made a name for himself in it, and a few years later he was famous world-wide for his roles in ‘Dirty Dancing’ and ‘Ghost’. And now he is reduced to this.

Surrounded by B-rate actors who you will probably recognise from countless TV movies, without quite being able to put names to faces, Swayze has never looked so old and haggard. Come to think of it, he must be getting on a bit now, but I wasn’t ready for him to look quite so rough! What really annoyed me, however, was the sub-Bruce Willis facial expression that Swayze chose to sport for most of the film – that quizzical, confused look really got on my nerves after a while.

So, what’s it all about then? Well, Swayze plays Horace ‘Race’ Darnell, who was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife in a crime of passion, and has spent 7 years on Death Row in Utah State Penitentiary. During that time, he has written a chronicle of his life and times in prison, and how he was unjustly convicted of a crime he did not commit, entitled ‘Waiting to Live’. So far, so plausible.

You see him listening to tapes sent in by his beloved Steph, a woman who believes he is innocent and is waiting to see him upon his release – he sends tapes back to her, and gazes lovingly at her picture on his cell wall. However, it soon becomes clear that Race has been in contact with not one, but four women on the outside – there is Steph, a downtrodden housewife, Gloria the photographer, Lita the ex-cop, and Judith the Kansas farmer! The prison guards vet every incoming a
nd outgoing tape, and out of spite they swap a couple of tapes that Darnell sends out to his ladies. You never find out what was in the tapes that got mixed up, but the immediate consequence is that Race begins to receive anonymous threats on tape, from a mystery female who declares that even if he is proved innocent, she will kill him.

The other woman in his life is Elizabeth, his lawyer, who truly believes in his innocence (of course!), and wangles a retrial on a technicality – Race wins his freedom, but no-one sees fit to explain quite how or why this occurs. He is cleared of the murder of his wife, and then tries to meet up with the ladies, one by one, to establish who was sending him the threats, and who wants to kill him. This is where it all starts to get a bit daft, as Race proves comically unable to work out just who the hell is stalking him, and treks back and forth all over the USA trying to find out what is going on.

There are various stereotypical characters and situations – he refuses to go to the police, gets involved in a fight in a bar when someone calls him ‘wife-killer’ and then has the obligatory moment of clarity: ‘I really wanted to kill that guy... I’m not like that’. Then the murders start again – whenever Race goes to visit someone, they are discovered dead a few hours later, with one finger chopped off, just like his wife 7 years before. The FBI are on the case, and you have one cop who is convinced of Race’s guilt, while the young female agent reckons that he is not the culprit.

You can see that there are various elements here that could make this into a decent film – plenty of possible murderers and motives, a man on the run, his curious relationship with Horton, one of his guards from the penitentiary. However, in the end it just becomes a predictable, by-the-numbers movie, filled with cheesy lines like, ‘Call me crazy, but I don’t believe
you’re the killer’. The ending is quite well done, and there is a bit of a twist to keep you interested, but what annoyed me is that you never find out what happened to Race’s wife. Did her kill her? And if not, who did, and why was her finger hacked off? All this leaves a gaping hole in the plot, so the film can never draw to an effective conclusion. This kind of film deserves to go straight to video.

Summary: