Tales Of The Grim Sleeper

I love documentary films. Even if i try and see some, i never really write reviews about them. I suppose that i focus more on writing reviews on ordinary movies, just because there are so many films coming out each month. The difference between a feature film and an documentary film, is that you can tell a story in a very different way. When you make a documentary film, you have to have a lot of information, and be able to put it all together, to keep the viewer interested. You do this in ordinary films also of course, but there is still a difference, since with a documentary you are not supposed to fake scenes or facts. I can´t remember how many times i have seen Micahel Moore´s really good documentary films Bowling For Columbine, Farenheit 9/11, Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story. If you have not seen any of them, i recommend that you do. They all tell different stories, based on real events, with different views on different events and subjects. HBO have made many really good documentary films over the years. One of my personal favourites is called Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God, directed by Alex Gibney. This horrible story about deaf children, being sexually abused by the priest Lawrence Murphy in Milwaukee, makes me so angry. How a priest can molest children at all is out of my world, it should not even exist. There are plenty of good documentary films made from England also, especially from documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield. If you have not seen his documentary film Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. He made this film before Aileen was executed, known as one of the most dangerous female serial killers ever in America. Nick Broomfield managed to capture the feeling of hos disturbed this woman was, and you also don´t know if you can take anything serious of what she is saying, i would guess she lied about almost everything. Nick continued to make more documentary fims, about all kinds of different subjects and people. One film i want to see, is called Sarah Palin: You Betcha !. They say it is a good view on who Sarah Palin is, and how she managed to bring so many scandals on her in her political career. Nick is now back, with his latest film called Tales Of The Grim Sleeper, based on the case of chief suspect Lonnie David Franklin Jr. When i got the chance to see this new documentary film, i was really excited to see if it was as good as some of Nick Broomfields earlier films. Is this the best film so far from director Nick Broomfield, or have his earlier films been much better than this one ?

Between the years of 1985 - 2007, a lot of women in all ages were found murdered brutally in different locations in Los Angeles, California. Police did not seem to find enough evidence to arrest anyone, until in 2010. A man named Lonnie David Franklin Jr, is arrested, suspected to be the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper. Documentary film maker Nick Broomfield travels to Los Angeles, to find out what the truth is, giving interviews to Lonnies friends, and people who knew him personally. Did Lonnie really kill all the women they have found, or did he kill even more victims ? Is it possible he is not guilty, that the real Grim Sleeper is still out in the streets ?

Even how disturbing this case is, and if Lonnie David Franklin Jr is guilty or not, i find myself very interested in the investigation of what happened to the missing women. Who killed all the women and why was no one arrested for so many years ? We get to hear interviews, with Lonnie´s friends, neighbours, people who helped him with jobs, and you get a sense that he could have been the Grim Reaper, since he had so many strange ideas and forced women to get naked infront of his camera. Drugs, alcohol, criminal jobs, Lonnie does not seem like a good man, and if he did kill all of this women, i really hope he is put in jail for a lifetime. I can´t be sure that all these people who say they knew Lonnie told the truth, at the same time i think some of them might actually told what happened, at certain moments where Lonnie used women. The most odd thing was that he was actually married for a woman in many years, and his friends say that she did not seem to know what Lonnie had in his house, or what he did. Until i find out that they lived in their own houses, then you realise Lonnie could do whatever he wanted with prostitues. Duringall the interviews, and all things happening around the case, i begin to wonder, let´s say Lonnie did kill all these women, could he have had someone helping him ? I become more suspicious about Lonnies son, who seems to protect his father a lot, and even fix so one the people who were interviewed is beaten up in the streets. Could he be involved since he is making sure no one should talk ? Tales Of The Grim Sleeper is a really disturbing look at a case that followed murdered women for over 20 years, where a serial killer was suspected, but no one was arrested. If it was Lonnie who killed all these women, he must have managed to hide his tracks pretty good, considering that no DNA was found anywhere, or the murder weapon. All the clues, information that keeps coming in, gives you a lot to think about what might be true, or if someone is lying. This is definetely a documentary film you should see, to make up your own mind what you belive is true or not. Nick Broomfield have possibly made one of his best documentary films so far, Tales Of The Grim Sleeper delivers a very powerful and emotional story, that you can´t let go.

Rating:DDDD