nightroses This is a TV movie based on a true story. The killer is Phillip who does extremely well at medical school, and chases a new student Megan, pushing for her to be with him instead of studying. He was creepy from the very start. They moved in together only 6 months after they first met, and soon he wanted to marry her, and they both have a joint bank account. The girl Megan comes across as totally brainwashed by Phillip, even when he fails to pay any rent and drains the bank account when she needs money and when he turns up home at very late hours. She's not even suspicious when he returns home from scratches on his neck. In fact no one asks him about that later on. One of his victims who was found dead scratched him. He was an evil killer and this TV movie kind of humanised him and romanticised him. Why did they put on sickly music and show Phillip and Megan in a heavenly scene talking about their future together with children? It seemed very weird and sick. The victims never got justice but atleast they know he was responsible. Megan dumped the engagement ring in prison and packed away the wedding dress. That scene played more sad music, which was inappropriate and unecessary because she's a moron completely besotted by her murderer evil boyfriend. I didn't like this film at all. TV movies are often good at making films based on true events, and also even if they add some changes they're always good but this film was dull and almost sympathetic to the killer.

SnoopyStyle Philip Markoff (Jake McDorman) is a top Boston University medical student beloved by his professor. He zeros in on Megan McAllister (Agnes Bruckner) and pushes to get married. He seems like the perfect guy on the surface but nobody sees the darkness beneath. He becomes obsessed with Craigslist and starts attacking the women on those ads with escalating violence. Police detectives Bennett (William Baldwin) investigates.The start is way too slow. The tension is too low at the start. There is basically no tension. This should a horror story or a dramatic thriller. There is nothing close to that here. These are all perfectly functional actors given rather bland material despite the scary subject matter. It's a movie of the week at best.

Robert W. Made for TV films used to be a standard thing on Television. Every Sunday night you could catch a rather typical but entertaining film about spousal abuse or kidnappings or serial killers. Now films like that are almost exclusively saved for 'Lifetime' or 'AMC' or other cable networks. The Craigslist Killer attempts to tell a true crime story within a small budget and still entertain and tell a real story that happened. It is entertaining and it is decently made but the small budget shows and the performances are just alright making this decent but quite obviously slapped together in many ways.The film does really revolve and rely on the performance of Jake McDorman who plays medical student and killer Philip Markoff. His performance is okay but it is also rather cheesy at times and laughable when it should be serious and really twisted. He sort of lets down. Agnes Bruckner gives a much better performance as the completely oblivious girlfriend/fiancée. Her performance makes you feel for her and really understand her character. The supporting cast are passable but really add nothing that stands out including that of William Baldwin who is probably the most recognizable name in the film.As I said the movie is passable and watchable and reasonably entertaining. It certainly tells the story well enough and gets all the points across. I suppose the only downfall is that it is in the made for TV mentality which makes it that much less impressive that the current age of big screen thrillers. Still for a TV movie it is watchable. Director Stephen Kay is a TV director and he plays by the book. Tell the story, deal with the actors given. True crime fans will enjoy it. 6/10

sz_chica11 Jake Mcdorman, besides being ridiculously attractive that he is unlike the real bad guy, did a decent job portraying the role of Philip Markoff in this movie by hiding his psychotic other personality from others for a significant amount of time. It was a role that he definitely knew how to act out without trying too hard which made it an overall good movie besides being easy on the eye. His TV wife however, was a bad actress, and honestly didn't have much charisma for the role. Perhaps a more well established actress could have been considered, who knows? He isn't a big actor either, but does a thorough job. I had a hunch that a movie like this would come out onto Lifetime just because Lacy Peterson and Natalie Holloway were also made into movies and were broadcasting on Lifetime. No big shocker there. Still this was a sexy thriller that i definitely enjoyed even though i normally don't watch Lifetime.