Best movie of this year hands down!

Thanks for the memories!

Powerful

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The Hunt for the BTK Killer (the initials BTK stand for serial killer Dennis Rader's monogram Bind, Torture and Kill), which Rader signed on most of the taunting communications he sent to the police and various media outlets over a 30 year period. This made for TV movie is based on the true account of Dennis Rader, a serial killer from Witchita, Kansas. He was responsible for the murder of at least 10 people over the 17 year period between 1974 and 1991. Rader then somehow stopped his murderous ways for more than 13 years. It is believed that he took exception to a television show narrated by David Lohr on Court TV on the BTK killer, and also to writer/lawyer Robert Beattie's book released in 2005. Rader said that he chose to resurface in 2004 because he wanted his story to be told by himself. Gregg Henry's performance as serial killer Dennis Rader was uncanny. I recall first watching Gregg Henry as a young actor as Wesley Jordache in the 1976 mini-series Rich Man Poor Man. From that first performance on the small screen he has went on to an endless and varied stream of television and big screen performances. The lead investigator Detective Jason Magida was played by one of my favorite actors Robert Forster (best known for Jackie Brown).This story is outlined in a quasi documentary style that commences with the actual arrest of Dennis Rader in his vehicle. The movie then takes us through some of the actual events and Rader's murders, as narrated through the interrogation of Dennis Rader when he was first arrested.What this movie does well is it outlines how Dennis Rader was able to elude capture for so long (over 30 years) as his murders were sporadic, and then he just simply stopped killing and sending any further taunting communications signed BTK. Gregg Henry looked and acted quite similar to the real serial killer Dennis Rader. The movie may not appeal to all movie enthusiasts as it focuses more on the events surrounding how Dennis Rader was actually captured. I would say that his capture was a combination of sound police work, and Dennis Rader's ego not willing to let anyone else glean any notoriety due to his infamy, which forced him to come out again and start taunting police. What he did not realize was that over the past 13 years when his killings had stopped, the world of technology was advancing rapidly and the police sciences were also ahead of the criminal curve.This TV movie provides insight in to the mental instability of serial killer Dennis Rader and his intense need for acknowledgement through the media for his murderous crimes known under the monogram as the elusive BTK serial killer. His actual court "matter of fact" confession is still available today on youtube for those of you that are interested in evaluating Gregg Henry's uncanny portrayal of Dennis Rader. Rader's court confession is told as if he were making dinner or calmly putting on his coat, not outlined as the actuality of his having sexual fantasies of killing people and then living out his fantasies by plotting and then committing these heinous crimes. On closing, Dennis Rader tells the police and the judge that there were many people who are very lucky to be alive today due to unforeseen circumstances that did not allow him to execute some of the murders that he had planned.

I'm from the Wichita area, so am very familiar with this case and was shocked by the factual errors and poor quality of this film.The single redeeming quality of this movie is Henry's portrayal of Dennis Rader. He did an excellent job of capturing Rader's mannerisms and bore a striking resemblance to him.I'll try to list the factual errors sequentially. First off, Magida is a fictional detective, probably based on Ken Landwehr. There were no female detectives in lead roles on this case. I'm surprised at the leaps the movie makes, using the real names of the judge and attorneys but fictional names of law enforcement officers. Also, no detectives who were present at the scene of the Otero murders were on the team that eventually caught Rader.Second are the location errors. The Sedgwick County courthouse, where Rader's trial was held, is NOT a small, old-fashioned building in suburbia!! It's actually a very modern building, several stories tall in a busy downtown area. The "Cousins Cafe" is also a complete fabrication. Rader went home for lunch, as he was a creature of habit the police knew what time he would be headed there and apprehended him on his way to lunch.Third are the errors in the crimes committed and reported. He was only linked to 8 murders until shortly before his capture, the Hedge and Davis murders were not committed in Wichita and originally not thought to be BTK killings. The Bright murder was not portrayed correctly either, I will not go into the specifics...read the books if you want to know.On to the film itself. It begins with Rader in the courtroom recounting the murders, but abruptly shifts to a portrayal of the case from the fictional Magida's eyes. Either point of view would have been fine, but if this is meant to give an accurate look at the horror of the murders, several have been left out.If you are interested in the BTK case, I would NOT recommend watching this movie. Read one of the books, but not Beattie's, unless you're interested in long and irrelevant diatribes on the author's life.

Wichita, Kansas was typically quiet for over a decade; in 2004, anxiety and fear swirls again. Dennis Rader(Gregg Henry), an all-American, church-going, devoted husband and model citizen had a dark and deep secret. Between 1974 and 1991, he tortured and murdered at least ten people in and around Wichita. The hunger of his former notoriety, awakens when Robert Beattie(Maury Chaykin)lets it be known he is writing a book about the BTK killer. The previous murders turned into one of the most infamous of cold cases until a new letter arrives at a local newspaper...the monster inside Rader rears its head again. Detective Jason Magida(Robert Forster)and the police department must stop the terrifying serial killings from starting all over again. The hunt is on. Being made-for-TV, there are no gruesome murder scenes, which I would have welcomed. Also in the cast: Michael Michele, Mimi Kuzyk and Mike Turner.

John Dunsworth ... Jim Lahey of Trailer Park Boys has a few different appearances in the movie.As the Reverand of the church BTK goes to and speaks several lines but there is no mention he is in the movie.just seemed odd to me.I am from Halifax and enjoyed seeing a few people I knew in the film and of course recognizing locations.I did also see a few other people I knew from just seeing them around not really knowing them but there is no mention of them either.For some reason I never heard of this movie until this week and it is 2 years old. I normally am pretty on top of what movies are out there but this one slipped me by and it was a local movie for me also.I rather enjoyed watching it but does have a bit of the stereo-type of a Canadian film look to it but very glad to watch it and will again with my wife at a later date.