SERIAL KILLERS GONE WILD

Directed by Rich Hillen

Ramirez and Toole - Marcus Desade
Manson - Planet Marty
Dahmer - Kim Strange
Kemper, Wournos, and Gacy - Rich Hillen
With Tina Krause and Lilith Stabs

Sometimes my job isn't always easy. Films come across my desk that I want to like, that I try to like, but no matter what, I can't find anything enjoyable. That's the case with SERIAL KILLERS GONE WILD. Not even Tina Krause naked (a true God-given miracle, if there ever was one) couldn't get me to down-shift on the fast forward. Even with the VCR running on triple time, I still fell asleep twice.

SERIAL KILLERS GONE WILD is an anarchistic blend of "America's Most Wanted" and "Saturday Night Live", two shows guaranteed to cure your insomnia when you're in that just-say-no-to-vallium kinda mood. Well, if they don't make you claw your eyes out first. (my true thoughts on SNL, "Phil Hartman was lucky, he got the easy way out").

When SKGW showed up, it was accompanied by the usual "it's-an-amateur-production-here-are-the-flaws" note. Having seen this a number of times, I can only suggest to people that if they are going to send these kind of notes, then don't charge ANYONE for the movie. You never know when some fraud charges will come back and bite you in the ass. Beside, if the thought of going to jail for passing off sh*t for shinola doesn't scare you, how about Big Alice coming to take back his $20 outta your ass by shoving the business end of a Louisville Slugger up it?

Neither one is worth the chance. If people are going to pay for your videos, then you have the obligation to give them something they can sit through, and I'm not mean on Bad Movie Night either.

Sometimes filmmakers don't have the resources others do, but that doesn't mean what they are trying to do is any less valid. SKGW looked like it was filmed on VHS and edited from VCR to VCR, evidenced by the words PLAY and REC that flash ever so often in the corner of the frame. Does that make it a bad movie? No. The fact that it's as funny as a brain tumor does.

My thoughts are that SKGW will only appeal to fans of The Serial Killer Coloring Book, from which it is based. Marcus also sent a sample of the Coloring Book along with the video. While the morbid humor was lost on me, the video captured the satire and irony of the Coloring Book perfectly.

Both the Coloring Book and the movie take nasty stabs at the media. The coloring book, with its scream queen centerfold, reveals the tabloids for the bloodsucking leaches they are. The video takes a similar view, only aimed at reality television. If only it threw daggers instead of spitballs. Considering the subject matter, the humor should have been much darker. Even with Jeffrey Dahmer talking about his everyday life, the film never crosses over into bad taste. What the guy should have been talking about is "what's for dinner."

(Note: the true irony of the movie hit me on a recent trip to eBay. Both the Coloring Book and SKGW are seemingly meant as scathing examinations of the media's exploitation and sensationalism of tragedy. I found the filmmaker also selling "limited edition" Jeffrey Dahmer and Charles Manson clocks.)

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