I had never heard of John Wayne Gacy or his crimes before I saw this 1992 mini-series on TV, as I was only 6 at the time Gacy was caught. When I found out about this psychopathic contractor and his mass-murder spree, I read a novel written about it by one of the men who had prosecuted John Wayne Gacy. Most of the events in the novel were quite close to those in the movie, but many of the characters are different than the real ones. Kozenczak & Gacy are the only ones whose names have not been changed; all the rest appear to have been altered in some way.
Brian Dennehy is quite convincing as the burly, psychopathic building contractor who was responsible for 33 deaths over a 6-year period. Until this film I had never seen Dennehy play a bad guy; the closest he had come to it was his role as Raymond Horgan in 'Presumed Innocent', when he turns on his subordinate who is falsely accused of murder. It took me a few viewings to accept Dennehy's portrayal of Gacy, considering I had never heard of Gacy & his crimes before then and my own sense of 'type-casting'. Having read of the details behind this man's mission of misery, I found Dennehy's portrayal to be almost bang-on - almost as good as Kenneth Welsh's portrayal of narcissistic politician-turned-murderer in 'Love & Hate: The Story of Colin & Jo-Ann Thatcher'. Michael Riley is almost equally effective in his role as Joesph Kozenczak, the steadfast Chief of Detectives determined to stop John Gacy's demented mission of murder.
Most of the details surrounding Gacy's crimes were left out; this doesn't detract from the film, though. They weren't necessarily essential to the story as it's told here, but I eventually learned about them through reading. Most of them were strangled and then buried in various locations on the property, starting in the crawlspace. A total of 29 bodies were found on the property; 4 more turned up in the Des Plaines River, including Chris Gant - the boy who disappears at the start of the movie, and the last victim of John Gacy.
This is well worth seeing for anyone who is interested in true-crime stories.
Brian Dennehy is quite convincing as the burly, psychopathic building contractor who was responsible for 33 deaths over a 6-year period. Until this film I had never seen Dennehy play a bad guy; the closest he had come to it was his role as Raymond Horgan in 'Presumed Innocent', when he turns on his subordinate who is falsely accused of murder. It took me a few viewings to accept Dennehy's portrayal of Gacy, considering I had never heard of Gacy & his crimes before then and my own sense of 'type-casting'. Having read of the details behind this man's mission of misery, I found Dennehy's portrayal to be almost bang-on - almost as good as Kenneth Welsh's portrayal of narcissistic politician-turned-murderer in 'Love & Hate: The Story of Colin & Jo-Ann Thatcher'. Michael Riley is almost equally effective in his role as Joesph Kozenczak, the steadfast Chief of Detectives determined to stop John Gacy's demented mission of murder.
Most of the details surrounding Gacy's crimes were left out; this doesn't detract from the film, though. They weren't necessarily essential to the story as it's told here, but I eventually learned about them through reading. Most of them were strangled and then buried in various locations on the property, starting in the crawlspace. A total of 29 bodies were found on the property; 4 more turned up in the Des Plaines River, including Chris Gant - the boy who disappears at the start of the movie, and the last victim of John Gacy.
This is well worth seeing for anyone who is interested in true-crime stories.