Son of Sam (2008)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Story Synopsis: An abstract retelling of the real-life crimes of the notorious serial killer who terrorised New York during the 1970s. David Berkowitz, a loner who happens to be mentally ill, gets sucked into a Satanic cult. Given a weapon & ordered to kill anyone he meets, David heads out, shooting various innocent victims. When finally caught, he claims to have been influenced by a demon that lived in his neighbour's dog. Given the name "Son of Sam" by the media, David then changes his story, revealing the involvement of the cult. Despite being Jewish, David opts to be exorcised of his demons by a Catholic priest.Film Analysis: Son of Sam is another of the serial killer films made by noted genre director Ulli Lommel. Lommel started out doing art-house films in his native Germany before abandoning it & heading to the US. Since then, he has made various cheap genre films. since the millennium, he has been busy making a staggering number of cheap films based on serial killers.Son of Sam, like all of Lommel's post-millennial works, has been given a somewhat bad reputation by most genre reviewers. Indeed, the film is nowhere even close to being watchable - the various Satanic worship depicted in the film will leave a bad taste in the viewer's mouth.The film is an abstract retelling of the notorious "Son of Sam" case. During the mid-1970s, a series of seemingly random killings plagued New York. At first, the police were baffled by the nature of the murders. But after linking them by the weapon used (a .44 Magnum revolver) they called the killer the ".44 Calibre Killer". A letter was then found at the scene of one of the murders, giving police a vital break. The killer was then arrested & charged.The main problem with a film like Son of Sam is that Lommel doesn't know how to make a cohesive story, instead using all the tricks he learned in his art-house career to carry the film along. We have sound effects & voiceovers, frayed editing & what has become Lommel's trademark, his infamous 'lather, rinse, repeat' method of storytelling (in which the same scenario is played over & over again with little variation). Not to mention that the film has very little in the way of replay value - the film has nothing that would interest the viewer enough to watch the film again. In what is a cardinal sin for a horror film, the murders are glossed over, with only the victims' poorly done corpses shown (which have such cheap makeup effects that would dismay even the slightest filmmaker).The acting is, for the most part, execrable. Cast by Lommel due to his likeness to the real killer, Yogi joshi is a very poor actor. The rest of the cast are slightly better but still quite wooden, although Lommel himself shines as the priest sent to exorcise Joshi.

Totally inaccurate. The writer didn't totally research the actual events. The writing was horrible and the acting was even worse. Bad direction and very poor production round out the worse film that I have ever seen. I don't know why this was even released, this was a total waste of film. I had trouble staying awake for this movie and I was watching it in the afternoon. Further, I think that it is an embarrassment to Lion's Gate to have anything to do with this film. To the people who are considering buying this film, Save your money! Buy Summer of Sam, it is far more entertaining. At least in Summer of Sam they have big name actors that give a far better performance.

Director Ulli Lommel should be burned alive: also Son Of Sam is another unwatchable mess with only one question: why was it made ? What was he thinking ? Serial-killer movies based on true events can certainly be worth watching and educational: it is some sort of history, if you ask me. I was pleasantly surprised by the made for TV-movie Capture Of The Green River Killer which was on a couple of months ago. Or The Hunt For The BTK Killer.(NOT the Ulli Lommel version !!) David Berkowitz was never an interesting serial killer like Gacy, Bundy, Dahmer or the BTK-killer. Spike Lee made "Summer Of Sam" back in 1999 in which the killings only took place in a back-story. Even he was not interested in telling the tale of Berkowitz. Berkowitz killed mainly young couples in their cars with a gun at point blank. He later admitted that the neighbor's dog barked at him the commands to kill. The dog was possessed by Satan stated David. Lommel presents us with a cast that lacks any talent or charisma. The story is stupid, slow and annoying, filled with irritating flashbacks, vague dream-sequences and so on. Shot with your average video-cam, any man could have made this movie, much better than this failure.I watched about half an hour of it, than a fast forwarded.. it never got better. In fact, after 10 minutes you already realize you have a turkey on your hand. The short story: This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen

David Berkowitz, son of Sam, (played in a near-catatonic state by Yogi Joshi) recounts his story to his public defender, a tale that gets extremely repetitive fairly quickly. This deathly boring film by Ulli Lommel takes an somewhat avent-garde approach to the true life crime story, but all that does it make the redundancies all the more unbearable (Berkowitz kills, scene of satanic cult, talks to public defender, wanders around looking vacant, repeat, repeat, repeat) Also this film is not even noteworthy to those that are fascinated by the case, as the facts are played with loosely by Mr. Lommel. Speaking of which, this guy has made what, 5 or 6 'based on true life' serial killer movies so far(?!?!!) One would think he'd actually learn to make one that's even competent, alas perhaps it's just out of his grasp, poor guy... But he still shouldn't churn out such awful product.My Grade: F