2018 Films: #24. The Clovehitch Killer

An Amazon Prime viewing on November 23rd. Duncan Skiles directs the tale of the Burnside family. The Burnsides live in a predominately white town in Kentucky that's very religious and insanely sexually repressed.

Don, Dylan McDermott, the "Johnny Good Guy" patriarch of the Burnside family. He is the scoutmaster for his son Tyler's (Charlie Plummer) scout troop. He taught Tyler how to hunt and be a responsible gun owner. Cindy, Samantha Mathis, is the clueless wife who has no idea about her husband's, shall we say, kinky side.

In the wake of a remembrance of a victim of the "Clovehitch Killer," who bears a resemblance to BTK in terms of modus operandi, Tyler meets up with Kassi, Madisen Beaty, a girl new to town who just happens to be a relative of a prior Clovehitch victim and amateur sleuth. Tyler, recently outcast himself because of some porn from his Dad's stash that found it's way into his belongings, strikes up a friendship with Kassi and explains how that porn got into his stuff. This sets Tyler on a mission to find his Dad's stash in the shed outback and eventually leads him to his father's trophies under the crawlspace.

In the midst of the overwhelming evidence that points to Don being Clovehitch, Tyler doesn't alert the authorities nor his mother about his suspicions. Kassi however is convinced that Don is Clovehitch and wants him to face justice. Tyler convinces his Dad to get rid of his trophies but it's not the same. Without his trophies to revisit, he needs to collect more.

The film received a 74% Rotten Tomatoes rating. That seemed a bit high to me. Even though the film clocks in a 109 minutes, it moves slow at times and the tension doesn't really get ratcheted up the way I felt it should have. The film's denouement is also a bit far fetched. There's a lot that you just have to dismiss.

Now, McDermott is good in his role and gets really creepy in his version of the "Buffalo Bill coming out" scene. The acting was solid all around but I got bored at times and I never felt Charlie and Kassi were going to face any real grave danger. The ending was weak also  you could say it was against the grain. This was not a bad film. There are certainly worse films but there are better ones. I didn't have a problem with the film not having any brutal death scenes but there was not enough tension for me.