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Review

In this day of blood-drenched movie scenarios and grotesque close-ups of horrors, it’s still difficult to conjure up the real king of all horrors: the true story of a man who hypnotizes children, lures them to a quiet spot, then rapes, mutilates and devours them. Director David Grieco wisely places these events off screen. Wearing tortoise-frame glasses and a twisted smile, Andrei Evilenko (Malcolm McDowell, in a riveting performance) continually slips away from the pursuit of Detective Vadim Timurovic Lesiev (Marton Csokas). Evilenko also evades the carefully structured psychoanalytic profile developed by psychiatrist Aron Richter (Ronald Pickup), and the killer remained at large for nearly twenty years. An interesting subtext to the film is the fact that these gory events occurred during the late 1980s, and Evilenko’s escalating killing spree is accompanied by his rabid fury at the demise of communism. He changes the channel when he sees Gorbachev on TV. His utopia is crumbling, and “The Monster of the Woods Strip” is a man who will live and die a communist. Evilenko’s musical score is done with masterful skill by composer Angelo Badalamenti, noted for his exceptional work with David Lynch in Twin Peaks and Mulholland Dr. Badalamenti’s haunting melodies and writer-director David Grieco’s stark imagination have created a portrait of a serial killer that will resound in the psyches of all of us.

 -- Robert Cargni