Green River Killer (2005 Video) User Reviews

Low budget POS

[filmreaver · 1/10 · 31 January 2006]

This is the lamest piece of crap I've ever seen. It sounded pretty good and having heard of this serial killer, thought maybe it was worth watching. First clue was the total unknown actors, directors and filmmakers doing this film. I sat through the whole painful experience and left thinking WTF? Any accuracy is out the window. Ridgeway was not even suspected until fiber strands were found on some of the victims and under their nails leading them to Ridgeways 1980s Corvette which he conveniently sold several years prior. There was no proof that he took any of the victims to his home and he freely admits that he had sex with most if not all of them in his car, in remote areas, or at cheap motels. The worst part of this film is the audio overlay with the visceral video images of autopsy's being preformed in the background. What did this have to do with the story? If I wanted to watch autopsy films I'd have rented Faces of Death or some other such garbage thats out there.

I was expecting a semi documentary style film talking about Ridgeway, his motives if any, and how he did what he did for so long. Over his 20+ years of killing, he changed jobs and victim pickup spots several times and there was no discernible pattern nor did he fit the serial killer profile. This was never mentioned in this stupid film. It appears that the student film maker, its that bad, had such a small budget that he got the local exotic strippers to play the part of the victims so that the viewer can have some gratuitous nudity, interspersed with morgue films, some wacked out cuts to some guy Ridgeway claims started him on his career and anything else they wanted to shove on screen to make this film.

It plain out sucks. Don't waste your time or money on this real winner of a loser. Go to the library and get the real documentary if you want to know about this guy, this film could take lessons from that and so could the director, producer, creator and actors, all of whom are terrible at what they do. My advice to them is don't quit your day job.

Horrible amateurish attempt at a movie

[emsyff · 1/10 · 25 December 2005]

I'm not usually one to slam a movie,but WOW!!!I know it was made for TV or whatever,but still....there's no excuse for this type of crap to be out there.What a bad,bad,bad movie.Terrible acting,filming,plot layout.....really nothing positive to say at all.I love most of the serial killer movies like Bundy,Dahmer,Hillside Strangler....etc,but this is NOTHING like those at all.I don't know what kind of filming it is that has the look that this film has,but it should be stopped immediately.It has that look like maybe someone filmed it on a $300 digital camera and took it home and made it on their computer overnight or something.The beginning credits is a long panning scene of a river with a crappy font coming up ever so slowly showing the credits.Then it goes into a montage of "arty" shots of dead body's around the river as the credits roll on before the movie even starts for 5 minutes.Sooo dramatic for such a crappy flick.Do yourself a favor and AVOID THIS LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!

Yeah, it's that bad!

[darad · 1/10 · 9 March 2006]

My wife and I always seem to be suckered in by packaging of an unpopular title. From it's cover Green River Killer looked somewhat interesting having been based on a true story about a real serial killer. The moment we saw the first scene that it was on video and not film, the lead actor's (if you can call him an actor at all) stumbling through his lines to the awful cinematography and boxy audio we knew it was a terrible stinker and realized the watch ahead would be painful and excruciating. There were flashes of scenes that looked like they spliced from another awful film, probably one that was too bad to complete so they used the bits for whatever effects they were going after. You even could hear that the gun was plastic! If there's any good in the movie it was some actual police confession footage of the real killer, even he was a better actor than the guy they got as the lead. Someone should have just used the real killer's confession video, hired Bill Kurtis and let A&E or Discovery make a decent documentary instead. I should have checked IMDb first because all of its reviews from other victims (watchers) were dead on accurate.

I have to hand it to its marketing and artwork, however I suppose that's where the entire budget was spent on and the best part of the movie but not worth the four-dollars wasted. I can't say if I've seen worse movies than this, some were at least equal, like comparing a skunk's smell to a dead fish. Even those by Ed Wood or others from B movie directors at least provided laughter, this was too bad to be funny. A film as bad as this deserves an award, its awfulness just can't go unnoticed.

Disregard What I've Said Before, THIS is the Worst Film I've Seen.

[drownsoda90 · 1/10 · 29 October 2006]

Since the actual Green river killings occurred around my area and in the neighboring state of Washington, I was interested in the real murder cases. I mean, nearly fifty female victims have been counted, some of them never identified, and the murderer, Gary Ridgeway, was one sick man. So, naturally, I thought I'd rent "Green River Killer" when I saw it at a local video store. The DVD packaging looked rather professional, so I decided to give the film a chance. Boy, I'm so very sorry that I even wasted the three dollars.

Where do I even begin with how completely horrible this film is? It's supposed to be a semi-biography on Gary Ridgeway and the murders he committed, but it's so horrible constructed that I could hardly bare to watch it. First of all, the story is a complete and utter mess. It makes absolutely no sense and is extremely confusing. Second, the acting. Oh, the acting. It was horrible amateur, and extremely unbelievable. Third, the direction and cinematography. This film had to have been shot on an old VHS camcorder, or at least that's how the quality looks. The camera angles were terrible and the film just looked bad. Really, really bad. I also had the viewing pleasure of Ulli Lommel's other film "Black Dahlia", which was almost as bad as this. I would have reviewed that film also, but for some reason IMDb doesn't have a listing for it yet (hm... I wonder why?).

Lommel seems to have a history of directing true-crime films, but the problem is that they are all so horrible. This guy really needs to give up on his film career, because his movies are an insult to the film industry. Please, no more of these cheapo, straight-to-video true crime films. If I could give it a zero, I would. Overall, this film is purely and simply pathetic. Avoid at all costs, and never rent a film from this director, because it's guaranteed to be bad. 1/10.

Horrifying in all the wrong ways

[Lord_Frog · 1/10 · 8 March 2006]

Having survived Guy Ritchie's Revolver recently, I thought it would be months to find a worse movie than that, but nope. Fate had thrown a friend's copy of GREEN RIVER KILLER my way. Having never heard of it, I checked the rating on IMDb. 2.2. Pathetic. Even Uwe Boll's movies score better! But reading the few comments made me laugh out loud, so I decided to watch the beginning to see if it was as bad as the reviewers said. I became hypnotised by the atrocious acting and awful video-8 (it seems) camera work. I could not believe my eyes, it was so bad. I don't know where they found the "actors" but they didn't seem very experienced to say the least LOL! It was probably their first appearance in front of a camera. That would explain the overacting, particularly the killer's two work colleagues, both hilariously bad! It looks like the worst made for TV movie ever. I was shaking my head in amazement. So will you.

Sucked ass.

[sanitysale · 1/10 · 11 January 2006]

This movie was worse than a porn dialogue/story line. I didn't know that was possible, but amazingly it succeeded with flying colors in sucking ass. The lighting/acting/camera work/plot/dialogue were terrible. We honestly decided to watch the director's commentary because we couldn't possibly see them saying nice things about their own movie. Of all of this, though, the "special features" was flippin' hilarious - an "interactive menu" and optional subtitles! YAY! ... Wait. Doesn't ever movie come with that?? I could go on, but this movie doesn't deserve any more of my time. And this is all said from the point of view of an avid serial killer nut, and I love GOOD serial killer movies. This just wasn't one of them - please, for the love of everything holy, throw this movie in the trash and BURN it.

It was about on par with an experimental student film

[ultimategeisha · 1/10 · 27 February 2006]

Why would Blockbuster put this on the shelf? I lost 2 hours of my life watching this when I could have been de-scumming my shower! The worst film I have seen in months.

There was almost no dialog, and what dialog was in the film were limited to one liners, two liners and lots of women undressing down to their underwear.

The shots of an actual autopsy in the film had zero to do with the killer. It was a male on the autopsy table in the film and all of his victims were female! The acting was student film caliber.

Your cousin Vinnie could have played all 5 characters in the film and done a better job at directing than all the people combined in this waste of film.

Maybe it was shot on Digital...did not look like it was filmed.

Horrible, Awful, total waste of time & money!

[toby_us · 1/10 · 3 January 2006]

The director Ulli Lommel studied under the great Rainer Werner Fassbinder, but it has become increasingly apparent that none of Fassbinder's magnificent edge and insight has rubbed off on Lommel. With no true sense of the outrageous and satirical elements that made Fassbinder's melodramas so provoking, Lommel is nothing more than a man who endeavors to be controversial simply for the sake of controversiality.

This was just a horribly directed and told story, I'm pretty sure the history you would get say on A&E would be much better than the stuff Ulli is shoveling here. Please, don't waste your time on this film....

Ulli Lommel's movies suck big time!!1

[nerko18 · 1/10 · 5 February 2008]

I saw green river killer as a part of Ulli Lommel's Serial Killer DVD box-collection that was released here in Finland and i have to say that never have i seen such bad and poor not to mention amateurish directing in my whole life. First of all , each movie seems like it's been shot on a digital camera like many reviewers stated above and the budget seems to be close to nothing.

The premise of this movie could've made an excellent plot for a decent horror movie but even that was spoiled by bad acting and directing, and what's with that one actress that Ulli uses over and over and over again in his serial killer movies? Anyways steer clear of this one fellow IMDb reviewers cause' it stinks bad, luckily my boyfriend borrowed this serial killer DVD-box to me so i didn't get to waste my money on this pile of crap!

couldn't turn it off fast enough

[milke_2008 · 1/10 · 25 October 2006]

possibly the worst movie ever...I only got about 9 minutes into the movie and returned it. I am definitely never renting anymore movies by this director ever!! low budget and poorly, well, poorly everything! every time i pass by that movie in the video store i get chills from remembering how horribly horrible this movie was. the director should quit and find a new job and the actors should all change their names if they ever plan on trying to make it...seriously, don't waste your money renting or buying this movie. the only good thing i got out of this movie was the ability to recommend it to everyone i dislike...hee,hee. i have lost all respect for low budget movies, they used to be funny, now they're just scary bad

Best of Lommel's Awful Films

[Michael_Elliott · 29 February 2008]

Green River Killer (2005)

** (out of 4)

Director Ulli Lommel (The Boogeyman) tried making a comeback with three serial killer films with this one here being the third. This is the true story of the man who killed forty-eight prostitutes but I'm really not sure how close the film stays to the real story. This film has gotten horrid reviews all over the place but I didn't find it too bad. The film is certainly disappointing because it really doesn't do anything except show a few of the women get killed. We don't learn anything about the real man nor do we learn anything about what finally got him caught. On that level the film is very lazy but considering the zero budget, the director does manage to make a few nice moves.

Hot, hot ,hot!

[sormir · 10/10 · 5 January 2006]

People who expect an A&E biography will be disappointed because this Green River Killer is more daring and smart than the usual horror thriller. The story telling, the editing, the music, the camera and the directing is outstanding. Beware though, this serial killer flick is not for the faint hearted. It combines sex and violence (still "R"-rated) like no other film of the genre I've seen. There is some amazing "background" scenes that show the inner workings of the killer's mind, done in a manner that I've never seen in any movie. I'm not certain why some people are so upset about a movie filmed on video. What difference does it make if it's wild, in your face aggressive film making. Who would've thought that a cult director from the 70s and 80s would come up with a cutting edge visual style way beyond the best of MTV and Nike or Pepsi TV commercials.

The Films of Ulli Lommel (The D.T.V. Series)

[Captain_Couth · 7/10 · 14 July 2007]

Green River Killer (2005) is loosely based upon the Gary Ridgeway murders. Real footage of the Green River Killer is mixed in throughout the flick. We follow his exploits as he tries to balance a normal life whilst he strangles and kills women. The movie is another one of Ulli Lommel's real life horror pictures. Despite what people say about this movie and his other works, it's not shot on a lazy weekend it a lack of skills, etc. etc. The movie is pretty slick and stylish, unlike most DTV movies out there. Some unexpected humor is also presented in the movie through Gary's buffoonish co-workers who he likes to put in check once in awhile.Watch for a cameo appearance from Ulli Lommel. He plays the Cowboy hat wearing bounty hunter.

IThe murders are horrific and brutal (like how it is, not clean and sanitized). The Digital Camera gives the movie a realistic feel to it. Is this move an award winning film? No, but it's entertaining and isn't that what really counts?

cheers.

Stinks

[brinybay · 1/10 · 14 January 2006]

Movies based on true crime stories are usually at least interesting, and for lack of a better word, entertaining. But not this one, even if it was in my backyard. Take a few scenes of soft porn of Ridgeway with prostitutes, alternate them with flash scenes of an unrelated gory autopsy, (apparently these were dream sequences, but I couldn't tell) and intersperse with actual video tapes of Ridgeway talking about the murders, and you have the entire movie. There weren't even any scenes of King County that I recognized, the whole thing could have been shot in LA for all I could tell.

They didn't even have the facts straight. Ridgeway was working as a truck painter at the Kenworth plant, but the movie had him working in a warehouse. The Green River Task Force was part of the King County Sheriff's Office, but the cops in the movie identified themselves as "SPD", meaning "Seattle Police Dept." Lead detective Dave Reichert, who later became King County Sheriff and now a member of Congress, makes no appearance anywhere in the movie. The movie also depicted his victims as pretty white women that belong to a madam who's "business" is based out of a low-life bar where he picked them up. That was not his m.o. at all. Some of his victims were black, many of them minors, and he picked them up off the street, mostly along the Seatac strip. Also, Ridgeway was a very plain looking, geeky type of guy, but the movie made him look like a mean biker-type dude.

It's plain the film makers made no attempt at researching the case. They only knew that it involved the Green River which is somewhere around the Seattle area. What a pathetic piece of garbage, don't waste your time and money on it.

Cheesy and Lame

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 27 July 2008]

Along twenty years, the deranged serial-killer Gary Ridgway (George Kiseleff) has killed at least forty-eight prostitutes and dumped their bodies in Green River.

It seems to be wrong, but that is the storyline of this cheesy and lame movie. The screenplay and the shooting seem to be home-made soft porn, with bad acting, awful lighting and poor dialogs entwined with footages of the real killer. The breast and naked bodies of the prostitutes and the art of the cover of the DVD are the only worthwhile thing in this crap. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Morte em Green River" ("Death in Green River")

Career Suicide.....

[esteeloren54 · 1/10 · 15 January 2006]

The Green River Killer, directed by Ulli Lommel, was highly disappointing to say the least. A Blockbuster employee was insistent when stating I should not spend the four dollars to rent this movie. I decided to rent the movie anyways, for I have interest in The Green River Killer story; as I was raised near Auburn, WA, where the killings occurred. I can honestly state, this was the worst movie, overall, that I have ever seen.

My boyfriend is a director, and even his older, low budget films he had made in film school were much, much, much better quality than Ulli Lommel's film. I can almost be certain that Ulli Lommel has never had film training or schooling based off the lack of direction in film. Ulli needs to be more objective and see his films as they are- completely flawed. I only hope Ulli will read the reviews and either decide to pursue proper training for this craft, or quit the business; this business is not for everyone. A director's level of success is based off his past works, and the reputation he has created for his name. Though Ulli may be pleased with the revenue his film is bringing in (due only to the film's title, the quickly cut/misleading trailer, and the fancy case/cover art which misleads the audience into thinking they're about to watch a high budget film), I fear he has not considered that he is committing career suicide. For many of us, he has ruined his name as a director.

It is a pity that Ulli chooses such great stories that have the potential for a great film, and still only manages to disappoint his audience. This seems to be a continuing trend.

There are several examples of poor film making in this recently released movie. The lighting was poor, the picture quality- poor, the sound- poor, the character development- poor, the music- poor as it honestly mirrored the music in cheap porno films, the acting (not to mention a dozen other poor qualities or choices he made). If I got into that, I would honestly be writing an additional three pages.

I did not learn anything about The Green River Killer in this film. Literally, not anything. It was not informational, not completely accurate, and painful to watch.

In short, I would not recommend this movie to anyone, nor any of Ulli Lommel's other films. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Keep your four dollars and rent yourself a more entertaining selection.

uummm...crap!!!

[leo_bartels · 2/10 · 6 December 2005]

I own a video store so I got a screener of this film..

I am sorry to insult the gentleman who made this film...but what the hell.. I have seen many poorly done serial killer flicks, and some have been worse than this one but, boring..

for those who just wanna see some boobs and girls getting strangled during long unexciting sex scenes maybe this one is for you. this film was full of long slow montage shots of unimportant crap.. the acting was okish the script could have used a little more useful dialog... I did like the interview parts with the real killer (asuming that that was the real killer) and the general setup was OK...

I think they just needed to spend a lot more time and energy on this one..

needless to say I will not be bringing in a copy for my store.

Boring film and not very factual

[Rebdomine_666 · 1/10 · 25 January 2006]

For me, this was going to be another serial killer movie to add to my collection of favourites, until I watched the first 10-15 minutes. This movie does have some good parts...the naked ladies, whom are very attractive. The actors in this low budget flick are pretty bad considering they are experienced. There is a completely made up character named Boris, who is Gary's "mentor" and apparently got him started in his killing journey, WTF. This was so odd and bogus it totally threw me off liking this steaming pile. The mixed-in clips of Gary Ridgway were pretty cool, there was actually a scene or two I haven't seen before. I found the commentary to be more interesting then the movie itself, which isn't saying much. The director has very interesting thoughts on how the mind of a serial works, and I mostly agreed with him. If this movie didn't help sway your opinion of seeing it or not, only check it out if you have extra cash laying around. For me, it's a painfully boring movie and very off topic about the crimes of the GRK. I'm Looking forward to the Zodiac movie and Karla when it comes out, they should be worthy of making my fav list.

do not see this movie

[pirateonweekends · 1/10 · 3 July 2006]

this movie was terrible. i even turned it off half way, and i love bad movies. this movie is like a violent porno. sooo bad. it looked as if someone rented a video camera from billy bob down the street, and started video taping. absolutely horrible. the cast is horrible, the script makes you laugh, and at the same time, cry. they got the worst actor, put him into suspenders, and had him violently make out with women. right before he has sex, he takes his shirt off, but then puts his suspenders back on, probably for holding his hairy beer belly back. the sad thing is, this would have been a great plot! one would think this movie would write itself. apparently, the producers found the most incompetent people to work on this film, thus making extremely difficult what should have been handed to them on a silver platter. absolutely horrible, i beg of you, do not see it. do not waste your money or time.

Crappiest Movie EVer

[bobbiap24 · 1/10 · 20 February 2006]

After watching only the first five minutes, i could tell it was awful I think that if i had watched much more i would have possibly killed myself. the box for the movie was appealing and the description seemed interesting enough but when push came to shove and we actually watched it, it looked like badly made soft core porn. Though the premise for the movie may have seemed like a good idea, the product was less than desirable. If more work had been put into and a a list movie star, director, and writers were casted it could have been quite interesting. But, that did not happen. I would not suggest this movie to anyone that has a brain, and any integrity.

A seminal piece of film-making

[soyuz_38 · 8/10 · 26 January 2006]

My friend Lexa Schamber lent me this film and I was blown away by its Jungian paroplexitic narrative and sub-Freudian subtexts. Whereas other films of this genre tend to focus primarily on the gore element the director has obviously taken the Kingaardien principle on board and constantly invokes the Oedipal malaise which centres the film. To dismiss as just another capocentrillian foray into the retrosyllogiconclastic medium of the Dillinger ethic - where the protagonist transcends the id and embraces the monosentient life force of the sub-ego - is to disregard the essence of the film. This is nothing short of a ground-breaking piece of cinema, simultaneously abstruse and bathetic, laden with meaning and symbolic of the neo-Xiatic paradox which anchors the fundamental aestehtic of true directorial vision.

1out of 10 is too much!!

[ken-jorgensen · 1/10 · 11 January 2006]

I was in the video store looking for a couple hours of entertainment when I came across "Green River Killer". Having just read the book, I thought I would pick it up. Heidenheim Films and Lions Gate should be sued for the naming of this movie. Other then murdered hookers, it had nothing to do with the true story. I can't decide if it was the lack of story, the terrible acting, the bad camera work, crappy lighting, lack of dialogue, and totally nonsense dream sequence that was played over and over, or that I was stupid enough to rent it. This was the worst movie ever made!! I checked the "spoiler box", however I don't know what I could tell to ruin this movie. 1 out of 10 is too much.

Green River Mess, more like

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 6 July 2011]

Before seeing the abomination known as The Raven, I was not familiar with Ulli Lommel's work. I saw this out of curiosity, being intrigued by the subject, thinking it couldn't be worse than The Raven now could it. I was wrong, Green River Killer managed to be worse.

The fact that the subject was interesting is the only thing that was going for this film. Green River Killer could have been quite interesting, had it not been so badly made. The camera work and editing are all over the place and the lighting doesn't fare much better.

Lommel's direction is really quite inept. There is none of the unique and magnificent style that was there with the man he studied from Werner Fassbinder, instead he comes across as very amateurish. The story is derivative and moves at a pedestrian speed.

Also poor are the script and acting. You would wonder whether there was any scripting at all for Green River Killer, a lot of it is lame and cheesy. And not helped by really badly written and explored characters, the acting all round is terrible, in fact Green River Killer is one of the worst-acted films I have seen.

All in all, a big mess and to be avoided. 0.5/10 Bethany Cox

Unwatchable Mess

[redhotchilipeppersrule · 2/10 · 27 December 2006]

Upon seeing the grotesque green cover on the rack in the nearby Blockbuster with the accompanying "Green River Killer" title, I immediately picked it up and expected to be amazed and educated at the same time. The subject of the movie was interesting and it seemed overall promising.

Well, I can promise you that that's the last time I'm using my thoughts to help me pick movies.

The beginning of the movie already demonstrated a low budget production. That isn't a problem, a lot of great movies were done with low budgets. The entire opening sequence switched from grisly autopsy scenes to angles of a green forest around a lake. Finally, we see some angles of what seems to be a woman The rest of the film is absolutely awful. The acting and effects are absolutely dismal. The plot is lacking and at times it is slightly confusing since there is no proper narrative to what is going on.

Towards the end, when Gary the Green River Killer is arrested for killing 48 prostitutes, there is no proper ending or finale. It leaves the watcher hanging in an unprofessional, bad way.

Final verdict? Watch a documentary instead. Don't bother watching this. It's not worth your time and money.