Good concept, poorly executed.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This isn't a slasher and given the fact that most of Fish's victims were children, which he sexually molested and cannibalized, that isn't too surprising a fact. Further evidence of this if needed was the fact the Chiller channel released this alongside Hitchcock's "Psycho" in a masters of suspense double bill.****Here starts the spoilers, in so much that reference will be made to the true story on which this is based and how this was portrayed in this film****What this is, notwithstanding, is a film that focuses on the murder of Grace Budd and the police investigation that leads to Fish's eventual arrest. Set against the backdrop of the great depression, the film shows the effects such crimes have, not only on the victims and their families, but indeed, the killer and his loved ones as well. It's worth mentioning this, as some of the photography and visuals belie the limited budget of this ambitious period piece. Mention has been made of a train and metal railings that were not to period, but given the budget and location this in itself is laudable and such things were well hidden from anyone but the most perceptive and in my mind no way interferes with the film or the telling of it. Certainly the set decoration and costumer departments did a wonderful job and scenes like the Western Union telegram repository are truly beautiful and evocative. Shot mostly in Gutherie and Oklahoma City the film does give one the look and feel of Depression-era New York. How they made The local Masonic Lodge look like Grand Central Station is beyond me, but that I guess is where a director's vision becomes very evident in the ability to see that and believably recreate it in such a strange location. An Easter egg in this scene are the flower and sweet sellers, which are the two news anchors for Fox 25, who ran coverage of the filming of the Gray Man under the heading "Okiewood"!!Drawing from the original letters Fish wrote to his family, lawyer, doctors... and most chillingly, several victims, these and the trial transcripts were handed to the Producers by Fish's trial lawyer and used as source material. Several scenes were also created around photographs of Fish and his family and while this doesn't add anything truly to the overall film, it does speak to the intelligent use by the director and makes for another wonderful Easter egg.This is one of the films you wish they had made a mini-series of. Plunging into the darkness the film maker holds on the central plot of the abduction and murder of Grace Budd. Given this was an Indie and thus the running time was dictated for commercial showing, it shows several abductions, alluding to the murders if not showing them. It would have been nice to have more and one suspects much had to be left on the cutting room floor. Still what we have is well crafted and accurate.In a world where we have become desensitized to violence the director goes the intellectual route and crafts suspense and leaves the bad things for your minds eye to create and dwell on. Something I wager which is far scarier. It isn't Disney, it's intelligent and for those that seek blood, gorging on human flesh and excrement this isn't the film for you. Yes these are mentioned or showed in a stylized way that retains the horror sans a Chuckyesque knife- wielding maniac. There is also no teenage sex or pounding rock music to distract you either. Flynn uses Bauchau in the vein of Wells, portraying him as a grandfatherly figure, the demonic is seen in flashes and in a command performance Bauchau's Fish is absolutely chilling.Further comparison can be had to the old masters in the stylized filming of the Budd scene in which we are introduced to the angelic Grace Budd. In fact throughout, the camera is moved wonderfully and every shot used to support and promote the emotional narrative. In the age of 5 camera lock-offs, jump cuts and CGI, is a film purist's dream. All in all, this was a film of which I left wanting to see more. While this wasn't a slasher or indeed, a documentary, what it is is a nicely crafted true crime story that is entertaining and makes one talk, think and feel. Overall the acting, camera work and direction were above par, with the jobs done by Bauchau, Flynn and Rudd respectively worth higher praise. The film is in Fincher territory rather than Roth, not that that's a bad or good thing, it just is. While this isn't the full story, we're all going to have to wait for a mini-series to get that. In the mean time color me intrigued and hoping for such an event.

Considering that this film was supposed to tell the story about one of the most bizarre serial killers in history, it's absolutely amazing that the end result we get served is this tedious muck. Something is definitely wrong when you realize that the film you are watching easily can be labeled " a film for the whole family", a film the Hallmark channel would "proudly present." Instead of a thoroughly deep-dive into Mr. Fish's murky psyche, a proper probing into the mechanizations that drove this deranged specimen of a man, a both tell and show with the slaughter and cannibalizing of Grace Budd, what you get is a badly acted detective-story ( with film-noiresque monologue ), a lead that don't remotely look like Albert Fish, and a misplaced focus on the detective in charge. The gore is of course non-existent, and while this "tell, don't show" approach work excellently in films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dahmer, here it is sorely missed. Inexcusable. Not to mention that certain liberties is being taken in regards to what really happened.Bottom line; if you want a scary film for the kiddies ( age 3-12 ), go for this one!! On the other hand, if you want a properly nasty horror-film about good old Albert, you better keep your fingers crossed for a director that truly have the courage to handle this dark material the way it deserves! Hopefully soon one will come along......

When I was a kid, I read comic books and in those comics were ads for everything from "sea monkeys" to books about "freaks." One ad showed an elderly, bewhiskered man named Albert Fish; beneath his picture was the word "cannibal." In my neighborhood, there was an old man who looked a LOT like Albert Fish: his skin and his hair were gray, and he wore an ankle-length gray trenchcoat. He would stand across the street from the grade school I attended and accost kids on their way home every day. I asked who he was and someone told me that his name was "Pork Chop." I made a point of avoiding him. But there came a day when I had to stay after school for some long-forgotten reason. As I crossed the street, I realized that someone was following me. I turned, and there was Pork Chop. He reached for me. "Come here, son," he whispered. I backed away, shaking my head, and looked toward the school- but the school was empty and deserted now. Pork Chop came at me, arm outstretched. I ran. My mother called the police when I got home and I went back with them to the place where I'd been accosted, but Pork Chop was gone. A door-to-door search yielded no results. I've never forgotten that close encounter, nor Albert Fish, "cannibal." While I think that Bauchau is probably a lot more cultured than the real-life Fish was, his is still a riveting performance and helps make THE GRAY MAN a true crime movie worth watching. The only real problem with it is the inordinate amount of time that is spent on the obsessed cop: real or a fictional construct, he's not the reason to see THE GRAY MAN.

A solid thriller about Albert Fish (a very fine performance by Patrick Bauchau), the real life serial killer of children in 1930's America. Fish seemed a harmless old man, but in 1934 he was arrested as the murderer of several missing children he somehow duped their families into leaving him with (using an assumed name throughout). Part character study and part detective procedural, The Gray Man wisely avoids graphic horror and sensationalism (Fish's murders, for instance, are never shown on camera), and while it is rather conventional, it is nevertheless quite chilling nonetheless and it shows a director with a very keen sense of storytelling.