Directed by Svetozar Ristovski. Starring : Jesse Moss, William Forsythe, Emma Lahana, Cole Heppell, Belinda Metz, Michael Ryan, Andrew Airlie. Horror/Drama, Certificate : 18.

Release Date : 7th March 2011. 98 mins RRP : £15.99.

Arrested in 1978 for the murders of 33 boys and men in Illinois, John Wayne Gacy was one of America’s most notorious serial killers from a prolific period for spotlight-hogging madmen. His rampage helped reinforce the enduring creepiness of clowns while entering pop culture via references in SOUTH PARK and TV mini-series TO CATCH A KILLER. As with all the “big-name” modern mass-murderers, Gacy’s legacy has been exploited for the straight to DVD market with mediocre fare like 2003’s straight-forward biopic GACY (with Mark Holton in the title role) and 2010’s dubious GACY HOUSE, a PARANORMAL ACTIVITY rip-off invoking his hostile ghost. The nadir might yet prove to be DAHMER VS GACY (2011), coming to a Hell-bound DVD bargain-bin near you in the not too distant future. (Yep, it really is a movie).

Released as DEAR MR GACY in the U.S., THE LAST VICTIM isn’t interested in depicting the well-known, grim exploits of Mr Gacy in a conventional biographical fashion - which is just as well, because, after years of duff “real-life” serial killer flicks, neither are we. Instead, it’s a serious-minded, intelligent adaptation of the memoirs of Jason Moss, a young law student whose efforts to understand Gacy for the purpose of his class paper led him into very dark psychological territory. The real Moss, here played by the unrelated Jesse Moss, subsequently became a criminal defence attorney before taking his own life in 2006 - a development curiously not referenced by the movie, though its tone is sufficiently downbeat without it.

In 1993, despite his professor dismissing the subject of serial killers as “over-exposed and trite”, Moss sets about getting close to Gacy (William Forsythe) just as the killer is six months away from execution. Moss opens up his personal demons and thoughts to Gacy in letters, enclosing shirtless, oiled up photographs to sustain his attention. In the name of research, he immerses himself in Gacy’s lifestyle and even talks openly to Gacy on the phone at home. While Gacy gets off on their peculiar, developing relationship - especially when suggesting Moss perform perverse sex acts on his little brother - Moss finds himself descending into morally ambiguous territory, straining his relationship with his understandably bemused girlfriend.

Brian Dennehy did a memorable job of inhabiting Gacy back in the aforementioned TV mini-series, but here, unrestrained by the small-screen’s restrictions on language, Forsythe vividly essays this all too human monster. The veteran character actor portrays the ageing world-famous sicko as a charismatic, intelligent figure enjoying the luxury of some blagged Cuban cigars in his cell while relishing a relationship with a handsome young man that enables him to become a mentor-ish figure. Vicariously enjoying Moss’ momentary descent into his mind, Forsythe is a powerful presence - though, if truth be known, we could have done without the eyeball-traumatising nude shower scene.

It’s rare to see a “true-life” serial killer movie where the focus is on the power (a la Hannibal Lecter) wielded by a psychopath while he’s incarcerated. This deliberately paced movie conveys the sense that we might all be capable of the dark deeds that we are so often compelled to read about / watch on the big screen. Despite the subject matter and the sinister DVD cover art, it’s more of a low-key character-based psycho-drama than a horror flick, though it’s frequently unsettling on a suggestive level : a tense sequence between Moss and a hooker is disturbing for what nearly happens rather than what does.

Moss delivers an excellent, multi-layered performance as a normal guy who finds himself becoming psychologically closer to the “monster” at the centre of his studies than he would like to admit. Just as we, the audience, would probably rather not look too closely into the reasons behind our continued fascination with this kind of subject matter.

Steven West.

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