Review - Gacy

Abused child, repressed homosexual, clown with homicidal tendencies . . . put them all together and what do you get? John Wayne Gacy.

It’s disturbing to think of all of the young men that died at the hand of John Wayne Gacy. It’s almost more disturbing that he was performing all of the killings literally under the nose of family, friends, co-workers and city officials. Even a little more so disturbing is that he was an upstanding member of the community and actually dressed up as a clown for children’s events.

And are people really that stupid? Let’s just forget the stench coming from beneath Gacy’s home and the bugs crawling through the muck for a moment. Let’s focus just on the men he did let go. The movie claims that Gacy picked up more than two thousand men. Why did none of them go to the cops? Or why, when they did, were they not believed or at least their stories followed up on? And what about the kid that worked for him that he actually whacked in the head with a hammer? That had to be one of the “fictionalized” characters because I don’t think even the stupidest of men would stick around after that. I mean he was actually beamed in the head with a hammer. The only thing that saved him was the fact that he actually fought back and it kinda brought Gacy back to reality a little bit.

I guess people like this really do exist in the world, what a sad existence it must be. Not that I feel bad for Gacy, or condone what he did because of any kind of “abuse” he may have suffered. We’ve all had our crosses to bare, but it had to be rough to live with the knowledge of what he had done. It seems like one of the morals of this movie is that parents should be careful what they say (and do) to their children as it could really affect them when they grow up. Another moral would be never to go into a man’s house that smells like dead things because there’s a good chance that there are dead things buried somewhere.

I really want to mention the artwork of the clowns around Gacy’s room. The clown art was really eerie. It was also quite freakish when Gacy came out to look at the kid’s car and he was dressed up in all his clown glory. It just made Gacy seem all that much more evil and deviant. I’ve always been a little scared of clowns. Now I definitely am.

Directed by
Clive Saunders

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
David Birke
Clive Saunders

Cast (in credits order)
Mark Holton .... John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
Adam Baldwin .... John Gacy, Sr.
Tom Waldman .... Hal
Charlie Weber .... Tom Kovacs
Allison Lange .... Gretchen
Edith Jefferson .... Mother Gacy
Joleen Lutz .... Kara Gacy
Scott Allen Henry .... Young John Gacy
Kenneth Swartz .... Dave (as Kenneth Swartz)
Matt Farnsworth .... Stu
Joseph Sikora .... Roger (as Joe Sikora)
Jeremy Lelliott .... Little Stevie
Oren Skoog .... Jimmy
Joe Roncetti .... Peter
Eddie Adams .... Duane
Doran Ray .... Tony
Larry Hankin .... Eddie Bloom
Rick Dean .... Ray
Glenn Morshower .... Ted Boyle
Jessica Schatz .... Julie Boyle
Mickey Swenson .... Det. Ritzik
Dan Bell .... Det. Dunne
Steve Abbott .... Det. Wolf
John Laughlin .... Det. Kay
David Manis .... Officer Bucholtz
Joe Goodrich .... Gas station attendant
John Horn .... Fred Getz
Tina Preston .... Meg Getz
Shadi Dwait .... Mr. Pasolini
Jessica Hanamoto .... Tammy Gacy
Grace Hanamoto .... April Gacy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pollyanna Jacobs .... Mrs. Pasolini