More than another gore fest

JOHN Wayne Gacy (Mark Holton) is a normal kinda guy, a good father and husband, successful businessman, a pillar of the community.

Unfortunately for the good citizens of Des Plaines, Illinois, he’s got a little secret. He likes to kill young men and bury their abused bodies under his house.

By the time his killing spree came to an end he had killed more than 30 men, becoming one of America’s most notorious serial killers.

Gacy begins with young John on a fishing trip with his dad, who gets drunk and beats him, taunting him to fight back. Gacy can’t and just cries himself to sleep. The film seems to suggest that this inability to deal with confrontation and his bottled-up rage go someway to explaining his killing spree.

Gacy lures homeless boys back to his house for a drink and a chat, sometimes posing as an undercover cop. His victims end up being hog-tied, raped and beaten or strangled to death.

But Gacy isn’t just another gore fest, most of the brutality is hinted at rather than shown in full. The film attempts to show the motivations for his crimes — such as his past abuse — what kind of man he was and the different personas he managed to employ with ease, as well as his inevitable descent into madness.

Drama, 18. **