Lechuguilla William Bonin was a real-life serial killer who murdered a number of young men in the Los Angeles area around 1980. The plot of "Freeway Killer" gives us a character study of this man as an adult already in the process of carrying out his evil schemes.We see him as he entices young boys into his blue van; gets to know them with general chitchat; then, without warning, strikes, like some wild animal attacking its prey. As Bonin, Scott Anthony Leet gives a really fine, naturalistic performance, with emotions that run the gamut from cheerful normality to blatant hatred. Bonin had at least one accomplice, a young man named Vernon, well played by Dusty Sorg.The film conveys some gore, though not a lot, mercifully. On the one hand, we do not want a sanitized version of Bonin or his crimes. But we also don't want gratuitous gore and violence that seem to sensationalize people and events. I think "Freeway Killer" strikes a reasonably good balance.The guys being picked up by Bonin were so similar in age and appearance, they were almost interchangeable. I never did pay much attention to them; they were like stick figures. Any given victim could almost substitute for some other victim, so impersonal and fleeting were their roles in the script.This is no police procedural; very little time is spent on police investigation. Also, there is no mystery here and very little suspense.In this low-budget film cinematography is competent. There are lots of close-up shots, with emphasis on peoples' faces, showing their anger, desperation, fear, and deception. Rear-screen projections are noticeable in a few scenes.Intended mostly for viewers with an interest in true crime, "Freeway Killer" zeroes in on the Bonin character, a madman with the demeanor of a normal guy who liked to mess with the minds of his prospective victims. I rate the film above average for its genre.

elshikh4 After (The Silence of the Lambs – 1991) a fashion had swept Hollywood in the 1990s and beyond, as if a subgenre had been born in the thriller / horror movies. It's all about the hunt for one crazy ultra-intelligent serial killer, by – in general – 2 different, yet complete together, partners. Else that, the rest of the serial killers, largely the realistic ones, went to be TV movies of the week. While (Freeway Killer) isn't any of the above (having no TSOTL's formula, being based on horrible true story, and cinematic), it leaned to take the worst of both; the poorness of writing, producing, and directing.The writing has no business exploring anything, I think the scriptwriter doesn't know the word "history" or admit it. I didn't understand how come the movie turns into narration near the end, or the necessity of the character of the victim's mother there. Rather how the police caught the title character ? Obviously, the scriptwriter doesn't know the word "thrill" either !The back projections, as in the car scenes, were ancient and funny, which pushed me out of the movie's 70s mood to the laughing mood! The sets did serve as a factor of bore. Not because they were numbered or so usual only, but for the way this movie dealt with them in the first place. The directing is close to awful. It led everything blandly. Remember the scenes at the friend's home; nothing interesting or catchy of any sort was done there. In fact, the whole movie says nothing artistically !Save a melancholic atmosphere and tone, clothes from the events' era, and some good acting, I didn't find something to earn from it. Speaking about good acting; it was good in the tight limits of that script. So Scott Leet, with his scary charismatic presence, was about to be Razzied. Thank god that the other elements didn't harm him much. In best cases it looks like a nihilist and bloody road movie, a glum slasher horror, or a movie about troubled friendship between 3 troubled men, however clueless when it comes to the reasons of their troubles and violence (Bore ? Suppressed anger ? Hate to society ? Inferiority complex ? Persecution mania ??!).Anyway, not the movie that I expected or accepted about William Bonin, whether psychologically or thrillingly. It does have the worst of the famous 2 formulas that I mentioned earlier, and doesn't have something good from or out of them either. It's only a dark tale of a real serial killer, where being poor is the secret of its insipidity.

sarlex85 The movie itself wasn't so bad. However the storyline could've been fleshed out a little bit more. My pet peeve was that the movie was filled with so many Anochronisms, it threw the story off a bit. This was set around 1979-1980, but it looked very low budget. There were modern cars everywhere, besides the ones used by the actors themselves. The convenience store was riddled with current versions of consumer products, Bonin's alarm clock was digital, etc. Just seems like they didn't make a good effort at setting the theme of the movie to have been in the past. It was shot more like a student film on a shoestring budget.

homecoming8 "Freeway Killer" is based on real life serial killer William Bonin. He certainly isn't well known like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy or Henry Lee Lucas. But there were a lot of similarities with Henry. William also had a partner in crime. Mostly, these killers work alone. For the movie itself, I was really surprised. It isn't a big budget movie, which is often the case with these films based on real killers. But it certainly is one of the better ones. Scott Leet is not a known name, he mostly did some TV series stuff, but his performance is very good. The only familiar face is Michael Rooker (Cliffhanger, Slither). His breakthrough role was "Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer" ! This time, his part is not that big, but once again, very strong. The story is entertaining and thrilling, there are a couple of shocking scenes but do not expect buckets of blood or "Saw-like" torture scenes. The terror is realistic and gruesome without any cheap thrills. This is possibly one of the best serial killer movies since "Henry" and Leet's performance is certainly up there with Rooker's Henry and Steve Railback's Ed Gein. Much better than most films about real life serial killers, too often the production values are kind of poor or the cast is just average. This is in fact one of the better in that sub-genre..