Letters from a killer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Letters from a killer |
| Original title | Letters from a killer |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1998 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | David Carson |
| script |
John Foster Nicholas Hicks-Beach Shelley Miller |
| production |
Bertil Ohlsson Peter Snell |
| music | Dennis McCarthy |
| camera | John A. Alonzo |
| cut | Lance Luckey |
| occupation | |
| |
Letters from a Killer (also: Blood Letters - Post vom Tod or Letters from a Killer - Das Mörderspiel) is an American thriller from 1998.
action
Race Darnell is charged and convicted of the murder of his wife. During his imprisonment, he and four women who know nothing about each other are pen pals in the form of exchanging audio cassettes that have been discussed. After seven years of detention on death row, a review of the case is opened because his lawyer can provide new evidence of his innocence. He receives the first death threats from one of his pen friends, who learned of the presence of the other women through the indiscretion of a sadistic prison guard.
After his release, one of the pen pals and shortly afterwards his lawyer are found murdered. Since the acts followed the same pattern as the murder of his wife - they were shot and their ring finger removed - Darnell is again suspected. He escapes across the United States and gets support from his friend, the prison guard Horton, to visit other pen pals and find out the alleged murderer. Another woman is killed, one of her fingers is cut off. Ex-policewoman Lita, who is also one of the pen-friends, follows him to visit the second pen-friend and wants to arrest him. When the two discover the body of the third woman, Lita believes in Darnell's innocence. They trust him and flee together from the police to New Orleans to visit the last remaining pen pal, Lita. When Darnell's suspicions have now turned to Lita, he flees from her and wants to go to New Orleans alone to be there before Lita.
But the police and the FBI are also on the trail and on the way there. A terrible surprise awaits everyone involved: While the FBI has now also suspected Lita of being the murderer and has already prepared everything for her arrest, the perpetrator turns out to be the last pen-friend who brought Darnell and Lita into their power Has.
The last pen pal incapacitates Lita and injures Race. Then she reveals her plan to Race. She chops off her ring finger and wants to shoot herself to blame Race for the murders again. When Race tries to calm her down, the FBI storms the room and arrests him. Then a tape recording sounds and the FBI hears the perpetrator's confession. Lita had secretly made a picture of the murderer. At this moment the perpetrator grabs the hatchet and wants to kill Race. However, she is overpowered and arrested by the FBI.
Race later visits Lita in the hospital and says goodbye to his friend Horton. In the last scene you can see the murderess locked in a cell and parallel to this Race, how he drives with Lita in a convertible with the top down through a landscape.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films criticized the “unbelievable story” and the “rough narrative means” that would generate neither “interest” nor “tension”.
David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews asked who thought the idea of the film was a good one. The film is "completely ignorant" and "inappropriate".
Trivia
The thriller, shot in California , Nevada and Utah , was released on DVD in Germany on September 6, 1999. In France , after its launch on August 11, 1999, over 160,000 cinema-goers were recorded.
Web links
- Letters from a Killer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Letters from a Killer at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Last in a broadcast by NDR on September 12, 2011
- ^ Letters from a Killer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Mini Reviews (January 2001)