What If Your Dad Was a Serial Killer? Revisiting ‘The Clovehitch Killer’ Starring Dylan McDermott
Many of us were shocked when we found out the serial killer “BTK” (short for bind, torture, kill) was by all accounts a normal, suburban family man. He was also a Boy Scout troop leader and active member of his church. Though history has shown us these are positions often used by nefarious human beings […]
Many of us were shocked when we found out the serial killer “BTK” (short for bind, torture, kill) was by all accounts a normal, suburban family man. He was also a Boy Scout troop leader and active member of his church. Though history has shown us these are positions often used by nefarious human beings to cloak their evil, the idea that Dennis Rader was an active and allegedly loving father and husband at the time of his capture still haunts us.
It’s the sort of thing that makes all of us wonder what the poor family members left in the wake of the monster must be feeling. Having their entire lives turned upside down in one earth-shattering moment. Not only is the child losing a parent but also having their past and childhood deformed and manipulated into the cruelest of things.
The Clovehitch Killer is a story about being that child in that situation as it actively unravels.
Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story) plays against type in the 2018 movie from director Duncan Skiles as a dorky, middle-aged dad with a bad back and an even worse goatee. His idea of breaking the rules consists of having a soda pop in the garage where his wife can’t see. Or so it seems. In truth, when he’s not tickling kids at the local community fundraiser (ugh), he’s dealing with an insatiable blood lust to bind, torture, and murder women.
As many serial killer films tend to do, The Clovehitch Killer uses the actual killer as more of a peripheral character. We watch Clovehitch through the eyes of his timid teenage son Tyler (Charlie Plummer), as his awkward father transforms into a horrific murderer fueled by sexual deviance.
