B.T.K.

Or as the onscreen title says (and the director refers to the film as, in the DVD extras), "Bind Them. Torture Them. Kill Them".

B.T.K. opens with the ominous disclaimer "This film is a fictional story based on a real character. That character is Dennis L Rader, one of America's most notorious serial killers.

Events kick off with Dennis (Kane Hodder) checking into a hotel room one evening and ringing for a call girl to be sent to his room. He requests a "well built" blonde. What he actually gets is the very shapely redhead Kimberley, sporting a mischievous glint in her eye.

Kimberley freshens up in the bathroom then chats to Dennis about his marriage - he complains that his wife does not give him what he wants. Kimberley therefore obliges when Dennis asks her to tie him to a chair, but gets an uneasy feeling when he keeps demanding her to tie the rope tighter around his neck. She excuses herself to the bathroom and flees down the fire escape. Unfortunately she drops her driving licence …

Next we see Dennis at home, discovering he is a normal man - husband to devoted wife Susan (Amy Lyndon) and father to teenaged girls Sharon (Dru Ashcroft) and Annette (Cara Sigmund).

The family are listening to their radio over breakfast as a news item reveals the feared B.T.K. killer has struck again. Susan warns her girls not walk alone outdoors, but Dennis insists they are safe - they can't live in fear because of one creep going around killing women.

Apparently a supportive and reasonable family man, Dennis even comes across as sincerely wanting to better their relationship when Susan gently suggests that he has no time for her sexually anymore.

But once Dennis is dressed in his compliance officer uniform and out doing the rounds in his small Wichita community, he reveals himself to be an officious bully. His job is driving around in his van and ensuring that people comply with minor laws - on the day we follow him, he fines one woman for blocking her own driveway while unloading her car. He chastises another for allowing the grass on her front lawn to grow longer than the legal length, and has a go at another for letting her dog use the street as a toilet.

And it doesn't exactly pay for these women to give Dennis any backchat. That evening, he returns to the driveway blocker's house - she had protested in a particularly aggressive manner - and drags her down to her cellar, telling her he has a "sexual problem" and that he wants a "favour" from her.

Meanwhile Dennis continues as normal at home, with his wife and kids oblivious to his murderous lifestyle by night. Susan does admittedly grow a tad suspicious of all the time Dennis spends in his locked garage on an evening, but for her own reasons decides to play the matter down.

Which makes it all the more easy for Dennis to keep sneaking out on a night for a kill. We witness another of his violent escapades when he breaks into a pretty blonde girl's house and hides in a cupboard, watching her and a boyfriend make love. When he sees fit, Dennis makes his presence be known … with gory results.

Then it's back to the family life, a surprise position in the local church allotted to Dennis, more murders … it all becomes very episodic and devoid of any real storyline.

Where is it all going? What is the point? In concentrating on slick visuals and camera trickery such as slow-motion sequences and split-screens, director Michael Feifer has forgotten to give us any semblance of dramatic tension or reason. The result is a hollow, soulless film that often looks great (kudos to the cinematography of Matt Steinauer) but can't disguise that beneath it's sheen lies nothing of note.

Which is a shame because the cast are uniformly good. Hodder clearly relishes a role without make-up or masks, and does an extremely credible job of making Rader's character more likeable than it ought to be. His performance is graced with humour, menace and unexpectedly the occasional glimpse of human warmth. He even tries to reason with his murderous urges while narrating during montages of Rader driving around town.

But it's not enough to save this from being an empty exercise in torture porn-lite. It doesn't qualify as a character study (although Feifer deludes himself in the extras that that's what this is) because it never probes deep enough into its subject's psyche. Also, as the opening disclaimer attests, this is not an accurate portrayal of the events leading up to the end of the B.T.K. killer's reign of terror. It's little more than a series of barely connected vignettes that celebrate the torture and murder of pretty women.

If you want scares to accompany your polished torture scenes, you can forget it. There's no build-up to allow for tension and the direction is more concerned in looking flashy than playing with your nerves. A lot of the time it's like watching an episode of CSI. I seem to say that a lot in reviews lately, but that's because a lot of these low budget US horror films these days seem to favour this look. I, on the other hand, do not.

The closest this film comes to being scary is in one scene where Dennis picks up a young girl in his van, in broad daylight. It's a creepy and unsettling scene, which works thanks to some very good acting. Aside from that, there's nothing remotely disturbing on offer.

In terms of gore, as mentioned above this is "torture porn-lite". There is blood, but not enough to sate the lust of the HOSTEL brigade. Which is bad news for Feifer et al, because I don't know who else is going to bother with this pointless film.

The opening credits sequence The film is presented uncut in an anamorphic 1.78: transfer. Details are strong and colours are sharp. The orange hue is natural, giving the film a look not dissimilar to that of a slick contemporary US TV show or a music promo video.

The English 5.1 audio track is a clear and evenly balanced proposition with plenty of bass and adequately audible dialogue channels. Optional English Hard of Hearing subtitles are also available.

Static menu pages do not include a scene-selection menu, but the film can be rushed through by way of nine chapters. You may find this useful to know.

Extras begin with an audio commentary track from Feifer and Hodder, which is more interesting than the film. The two share a good rapport, laughing at each other's anecdotes and revelling in their combined enthusiasm when discussing the subject of Rader. They both clearly researched their subject thoroughly, and there's some interesting facts put across here. And yet, you have to doubt Feifer's motivation when he laughs in anticipation of the more violent scenes, and elsewhere describes the film as a black comedy. Still, there's precious little dead air in what is fundamentally a good track.

A decent 20-minute Behind The Scenes featurette follows. The on-set footage is presented in non-anamorphic 1.78:1 and varies between fly-on-the-wall footage of scenes being set up, and asides to the screen from principal cast and crew members. All of this is interspersed with clips from the completed film, curiously presented in non-anamorphic 2.35:1.

The disc opens with trailers for THE SPIRIT, THE EYE remake, FIVE ACROSS THE EYES and BURIED ALIVE.

Hodder's good in the lead role, but the film itself is below average. And pointless. Even to the gorno crowd, there's not enough here to tempt them away from their HILLS HAVE EYES remakes and AUGUST UNDERGROUNDs.

For everyone else, let me put it this way: if you've seen HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, then you've already seen the best film to be based on the exploits of a true-life American psycho. If you see B.T.K., you could be watching one of the worst.

Review by Stuart Willis