I wrote an earlier post on the low budget Gacy (2003) starring Mark Holten. Now it seems another Gacy movie is being made. This time through the eyes of one of his admirers, Jason Moss.

 The current title for the movie is “Dear Mr. Gacy” which sounds endearing. A sentimental trip down serial killer lane. The story is seen through the eyes of Jason Moss; he had an obssession with the killer after surviving one of his attacks. He even visited him on death row.

Interestingly enough, “Jesse Moss” is the actor who will be playing Jason Moss–no relation as far as we know. Jesse Moss recently starred in The Uninvited.

Who’s going to play John Wayne Gacy? That’s the best part. William Forsythe! Perfect casting if you’re familiar with the actor’s work. If you’re a horror fan you saw him in The Devil’s Rejects as a cop who gets bloody. If you’re a comedy fan you saw him in Deuce Bigelow as the insecure cop with the thin willy. He has kind of a cop theme going. Playing Gacy puts him on the other side of the law.

Forsythe has one of those nasty faces that can be vicious as hell. Reminds me of a dangerous drunk you’d meet at a bar alongside the open highway. I think he’ll do a great job as long as the director doesn’t screw it up.

More from the story can be read at Cinemablend.com including that incredibly creepy picture above.

I finally saw Bundy 2002, a dramatization of the life of serial killer Ted Bundy with Michael Reilly Burke in the title role. Previously the standard was the 1986 TV mini-series The Deliberate Strangerstarring Mark Harmon. Both versions give us a chilling representation of what Ted Bundy must have been like when he was on the loose.

It’s almost a shame Mark Harmon didn’t star in the updated version. His features seem to match Bundy’s more than any other actor–which I’m sure is not a compliment.

Michael Reilly Burke doesn’t look so much like Bundy, but I think he captures Bundy when no one was looking–that dark personality that slugged women over the head and dragged them out into the woods for his own pleasure. It’s harder to imagine Mark Harmon with his charming smile as the Bundy who would do that.

That is what made Ted Bundy unique among serial killers. He had good lucks and charm and could easily have had as many one night stands as he wanted, but something in him associated sex with violence. He could only climax when the other person was dying. If I were superstitious I would say he was possessed. It’s hard to explain a man who had no reason to kill and indulge in such depravity.

In Bundy 2002director Matthew Bright shows us the dysfunctional relationship Ted Bundy had with his on and off again girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall (she’s called Lee in the movie). The film does take dramatic license, but the scene where Lee allows Bundy to tie her up in what looks to be the most uncomfortable position and have sex with her while calling her horrid names is truly sick.

You could say that Bundy 2002 is an exploitation film, and I would agree; however, while The Deliberate Strangeris a more factual portrayal, Bundy 2002 captures the horror. Made for TV movies leave much to the imagination and with Bundy there was far more than murder going on. I read a handful of books on him and he was said to have returned to his dumping grounds and–I’m not intentionally trying to be gross–loose his seed into the skulls of former victims.

Bundy 2002 is also not a flattering film or a tribute to Ted Bundy. It not only exploits the Ted in the media, but also the personal Ted. In the opening shots it shows Ted as a shoplifter and Ted as the peeping tom in the bushes jerking off and getting water thrown on him.

Lastly, it shows the full execution of Ted in the electric chair–a scene that is not filled with sparks, but rather one where it is a quiet and embarrassing death for someone responsible for some many brutal killings. The director even adds insult to injury by showing the jailers stuffing Ted’s anal cavity with cotton and putting a diaper on him so he doesn’t release his digested dinner in front of the witnesses who have to see him die.

There will be more Ted Bundy films made as time goes on. He will become a legendary boogeyman much like other murderers from the past where the victims fall into the shadows and a mythology of evil emerges. He is also a clown and a failure as a human being who could not relate to women as sexual equals. I believe a cartoonish element will be added to the legend as well.

We revisit the crime scene of a Latin Lover from the past who suffocated on his own blood.

 His name was Ramon Novarro and unless you’re a film buff you’ve probably never heard of him. He was famous in the silent film era–in the time of Valentino–acting in such titles as: The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), Thy Name is Woman (1924), and Ben Hur (1925).

Later he continued film work in “talkies” until the studios no longer wanted him and he retired after investing in real estate. At the height of his career in the late twenties to early thirties he made nearly 100,000 per picture.

Unfortunately it was his sexual inclinations that would get him killed in 1968. He was a homosexual and hid the fact in the usual early Hollywood manner–bachelorhood. It wasn’t his orientation that killed him, it was an appetite for two brothers he invited into his home, Paul and Tom Ferguson.

Thinking they could get their hands on a large sum of cash he was keeping within the house, the Ferguson Brothers tied Novarro up and began torturing him. Tom even had the gall to use Novarro’s phone to make a call to his girlfriend while Paul continued beating the silent film star.

In the end, there was no money in the house. Ramon couldn’t give them information that did not exist. He was left beaten so badly that he asphyxiated on his own blood.

Ironically, it was Tom that got the two caught for murder. The police checked Novarro’s phone log and tracked down Tom’s girlfriend. She “spilled the beans” and the two murderous brothers found themselves on trial.

At that point the two Fergusons turned on each other and bickered as to who did the torturing that resulted in death. It did not matter. Both were given life sentences.

Amazingly, the brothers were later released. There isn’t much known about what happened to Tom Ferguson, but Paul went on to make a good deal of money running his own businesses. In 1989 Paul couldn’t leave fate alone and was accused of rape, not once but twice. It landed him back in prison where he is still serving time to this day.

Thankfully, due to the internet, Ramon Novarro is not forgotten. Ben Hur was a landmark film for its time, especially since it starred a Mexican born actor. The silent film era will continued to be written about on the web as film historians type away and Navorro ranks up there as one of the legends of the era.