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grumblinggargoyle
Reviews
H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer (2004)
This film put a documentary lover to sleep...TWICE.
First off, I usually love documentaries, and am fascinated by the story of H. H. Holmes. My partner is always teasing me about watching 'boring' shows, and how I tend to become so transfixed by what's being portrayed that I never notice things like one of the cats eating off my plate or drinking from my glass. This documentary did NOT live up to expectations. Honestly, it played out like the kind of show that gives documentaries a bad name--the kind my old schools usually showed when the class had been too rowdy. The main problem I had with it, I think, was the narrator. He had a great voice, but spoke completely impassively--not much fluctuation in tone or volume, and with the kind of dry manner that gives the impression he was completely bored out of his skull. As mentioned in the title, this put me straight to sleep, TWICE. Other than the dull, dry manner of narration, the film was pretty good. It had lots of interesting information that I'd not found in my online reading about Holmes, and I loved how they followed along the floor-plans whenever they could, in relating incidents. Holmes was a complete nut-job, to say the least, and even my partner was disturbed by some of what Holmes did--Eric isn't easily disturbed. So overall, it was a good film, but probably won't be watching it again unless I have an early start the next day and can't sleep.