jlthornb51 Mark Holton gives nothing less than the performance of a lifetime in this excruciatingly intense study of the infamous serial killer. Director Clive Saunders, working from his own insightfully stunning script, creates a true atmosphere of foreboding and dread and does not flinch from the true horror of the story he has to tell. Shot on location in Altadena, California, this is a technically superior low budget film and there is nary a sign that money was a problem at any point in the film. The incredible, disgusting, and repellent nature of one man's monstrousness is depicted beautifully. Holton seems to inhabit Gacy, become him, and expose him in all his unholy ugliness. It is hard to imagine anyone doing what he does in this motion picture. Certainly, others have attempted to portray this dark creature but no one has inhabited Gacy's very soul and made us stare helplessly into the abyss the way this incredible actor does in this overwhelming portrait of John Wayne Gacy. The Academy once again should be ashamed that Holton didn't receive the nomination he deserved, for this is beyond Oscar caliber work. This is total brilliance and so true to life it's disturbing and haunting in its sheer raw power.

random_avenger John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994) was one of the most notorious American serial killers, murdering more than 30 boys and young men in the 1970s. Naturally, movies inspired by his life and antics were to be expected sooner or later. The compactly titled 2003 straight-to-DVD movie Gacy, directed by Clive Saunders, doesn't go for the easiest and sleaziest approach to the grim subject matter, but is not a great movie by any means.The film starts with a scene from Gacy's youth, portraying his father (Adam Baldwin) as emotionally abusive and violent. The narrative then jumps to 1976 when Gacy (Mark Holton) has become a well-liked family man in Des Plaines, Illinois. However, the foul stench and swarms of bugs spreading from the crawlspace of his house are already giving hints of what he has been burying under the house over the past years.Instead of chronicling Gacy's life and murders chronologically like a regular biopic, the film assumes most of the viewers are already familiar with his modus operandi and focuses more on the dramatic aspects of his last times as a free man. The stress caused his impending capture, repressed homosexuality and financial feuds with his young male workers are paid more attention than gory kill scenes; most of the violence actually takes place off-screen. Still, the psychological suspense never tightens into anything very gripping, since Gacy remains very casual about his actions almost until the end, when he suddenly gets emotional about everything, only to return to his arrogant attitude at the very end. Some moments are also outright dumb, like the botched hammer murder and its non-existent aftermath. Some have suggested the film should be seen as a dark comedy instead of a drama, but personally I don't think the tone is light enough for such an idea – a shame, some gloomy humour could have sparked things up a little.The chubby Mark Holton looks like a perfectly normal everyman, which of course makes him very suitable for the role of Gacy who was also seen as a respectable citizen until his secrets came out. Too bad the film is pretty light on the character drama front, so he doesn't really get to deliver a particularly memorable performance. Charlie Weber as Gacy's tenant Tom does his part alright but Adam Baldwin didn't strike me as particularly convincing as Gacy Sr. in the single scene he is in. None of the other characters are very interesting, except maybe Gacy's sturdy friend Hal (Tom Waldman).In the end, I think it is good that the filmmakers didn't choose the most exploitative way of portraying their subject, but in order to compensate for the lack of violence (frankly, that's what a lot of horror fans are looking for in these movies, not entirely excluding myself) they should have put more emphasis on the personal effects of Gacy's disturbing secrets on his family members, who now awkwardly disappear from the movie at some point apart from Gacy's elderly mother (Edith Jefferson). The visual stylization could have also been bolder to make the picture more fascinating; there are a couple of cool moments with brightly coloured lighting, but otherwise the movie looks pretty dull. As it is now, Gacy the movie is somewhat watchable if nothing better is on, but ultimately drowns in the swamp of boring mediocrity.

KineticSeoul I wasn't expecting much when I rented this. But I just didn't expect to be so dull and boring, especially the serial killer Gacy. Nothing much about Gacy's back story is explained thoroughly and when it shows some aspects of it, it is just really boring which I usually won't have a problem with but most of the movie is about the boring daily life of Gacy. From Gacy having a douche of a father, to him not paying his bills, to him making the neighbors angry cause of the smell that is coming from his house, to finding ways to get rid of the smell, to hiring teenage boys to work for him. Which would be okay if it wasn't dragged on so much, but it really seems to drag cause it's just that boring to watch. The story is about John Wayne Gacy who is just a pathetic modern citizen but has a gruesome secret of murdering young men and boys and entombed them in the crawl space under his home. But when he is not killing people, he is a not so great husband to his wife and two daughters. Gacy has no aspect that the audience will find amusing or intriguing, he was just a uncharismatic loser fat guy living in suburban home in Chicago. Just about everything about this movie was dumb and boring, and the character decisions don't make any sense. One of the teen gets a hammer to the head and is almost killed by Gacy, but he keeps his mouth shut about the whole incident cause Gacy gives him a few bucks and to top it off he comes back to work for Gacy again. Gacy's decisions don't make any sense besides the fact that he isn't a very intelligent killer, he kidnaps a young teen and rapes him than he just lets him go. And it doesn't explain the reason behind this, he killed multiple other people so why let him go? Also it doesn't show why Gacy is so obsessed with clowns, cause the camera seems to focus on the posters of clowns in his house a lot. It is said Gacy use to volunteer for the children at the local hospital, but it doesn't even show that. A lot of scenes seem to be missing in this film as well, cause stuff seems to happen out of nowhere. There is no suspense in this movie, no true horror and most of it is hysterical to watch in a bad way. While showing the dull life of John Wayne Gacy it doesn't even explain what led to him becoming such a monster except maybe the boring 2 minute start of the film where he goes fishing with his father. Mark Holton however did a great job portraying Gacy though, it's a shame that it didn't delve more into the psychological insight into Gacy.3/10

Paul Andrews Gacy is set in the small Chicago, Illinois town of Des Plaines & starts during 1976 where local businessman John Wayne Gacy Jr. (Mark Holton) lives with his wife Kara (Joleen Lutz) & their two young twin daughter's. Gacy is a well respected member of the Des Plaines community, he holds huge parties, employs various young men & likes to do volunteer work in the community like attending children's parties dressed up as Pogo the Clown. However his respectable reputation seems at odds with the fact that he is a huge liar & brutal sadistic rapist & killer of young men...Co-written & directed by Clive Saunders this true-life biopic of notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy is one of several Indie produced films that profile some infamous serial killer or other from Dahmer (2002) to the enjoyable Ted Bundy (2002) to the God awful The Hillside Strangler (2004), I can't say Gacy as a film did much for me & even at a short 80 odd minute run time I doubt I would ever want to watch it again. The film starts with a caption that explicitly states several character's & events in the film have been fictionalised so Gacy is maybe not as true to life as some may like, having said that whether it's true to life or not it's still not a very good film. It's rather slow going for the most part & almost all of Gacy's crimes are omitted, at no point in Gacy do we actually see Gacy kill anyone which, considering it's a film about a serial killer, could be thought of as a definite flaw. Gacy is more of a drama than an exploitation flick, I thought the story & character's were alright but a distinct lack of gruesome incident & the total omission of Gacy's crimes meant that Gacy didn't really feel like a biopic of one of the most notorious serial killers ever. Surely those crimes & evil acts were a huge part of him? Surely they are the only reason anyone even knows who he is? How can the film almost totally ignore them?The film looks alright, it's reasonably well made although there's a distinct lack of blood or gore, there's plenty of maggots & cockroaches in Gacy's corpse strewn crawlspace but surely they would have totally overrun the entire house & not just stayed down in the crawlspace. Apparently Gacy is also known as 'The Killer Clown', in reality he was convicted & later executed (he was given 21 consecutive life sentences & 12 death sentences) for the rape & murder of 33 boys & young men (ranging between the ages of 14 & 21) between 1972 & his arrest in 1978 (27 of whom he actually buried in his crawlspace). Rumour has it Gacy's last words before his execution on May 10th in 1994 were 'kiss my ass!'. Bizarrely after his execution Gacy's brain was removed & is now in the possession of Dr. Helen Morrison although I have no idea what she intends to do with it or why she has it.Although set in Chicago the film was actually shot in California, it looks alright & has reasonable production values but it doesn't have much of a 70's feel or vibe to it. The acting is alright, Adam Baldwin has a small role at the start.Gacy is a film about a serial killer that completely misses out all of the killings, as a drama it's alright I suppose & at least it's short but I doubt I would ever want to see it again & by all accounts it's not that accurate.