Dear Mr. Gacey, You Really Don't Capture Well On Film

Dear Mr. Gacey

Svetozar Ristovski's adaptation of Jason Moss' superb book The Last Victim plays out like a made-for-TV movie.  Jason Moss was a young eager student who developed a theory to gain unfettered access to the mind of a serial killer by portraying himself as their perfect victim.  He wrote to Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Henry Lee Lucas, Richard Ramirez, and of course John Wayne Gacy.  The correspondences between himself and these monsters led Moss to his darkest place.  His desire to become an FBI profiler was eventually met with open arms and his research provided a deeper understanding of the psyche of these killers.  Unfortunately this film really doesn't dive into the complete story of Jason Moss, instead it keeps to a simple plot of being driven mad by his encounters with Gacey.  William Foresyth plays Gacey extremely well and the film delivers most of Gacey's brilliance in manipulation: which did cause the real Moss to break down little by little.  This breakdown is potrayed as a loss of reality and a push towards complete paranoia.  We were very let down by this film, had Ristovski actually followed the book he may have had an intense film that could have done Moss' life justice.  We hope that another, more capable filmmaker attempts this work and possibly shows his life leading up to his suicide back in 06-06-06.  That is a feat worth waiting for.

Rating: I/V