This Serial Killer Movie on Netflix Is Also a Chilling Coming-of-Age Story

The big picture

• The Clovehitch Killer
  reimagines the serial killer film by focusing on the son's perspective of his father's dark secrets.
• Tyler's internal battle with his father's true identity drives the film's narrative, revealing conflicting emotions of disgust and despair.
• Dylan McDermott's transformation into a psychotic killer with the facade of a loving father adds a chilling layer to the story.

It's easy to slap a “based on a true story” tagline on a horror film and expect the chilling recreation of the events to terrify the audience with the minimal narrative creativity required. The Clovehitch Killer may join those ranks by being inspired by the true story of the killer BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill), but the film sets itself apart through its framing. Instead of focusing on the relationship between the serial killer and his victims, The Clovehitch Killer retells a somewhat fictionalized version of the horrific events through the eyes of the killer's son. While there is a sense of mystery surrounding the story, it is never called into question WHO the killer is, however, how your child will react to the discovery. This brutal, twisted, essentially coming-of-age film commands our attention with each Tyler-forged beat (Charlie Plummer) struggles as he tries to reconcile the images of his loving father with the atrocities he has committed.

'The Clovehitch Killer' is a coming of age story

Following a boy who suspects his father is the notorious serial killer who stalked his hometown 10 years ago, The Clovehitch Killer introduces us to Tyler, a regular teenager who goes to church with his family and is reaching the milestones of adolescence. But her life takes a turn when she innocently borrows her parents' car late at night to meet her crush for an awkward makeout session. only to discover a sexual photograph of a woman bound in bondage hidden under the front seat. Enlisting the help of the outcast Kassi (Madison Beaty), Tyler slowly gathers clues to further suspect that his father's graphic taste in pornography is actually something much more sinister. This mystery is accompanied by scenes you'd expect from a coming-of-age movie, such as his mother believing he's caught him watching porn on the computer, his father “talking” to him and presenting the his first girlfriend in his family. However, these usually comical and embarrassing moments turn malevolent as Tyler struggles to understand how his father and the killer could be the same person.

As such, it is truly the twisted coming-of-age narrative that becomes the engine of the film's ability to capture our attention. In the same way that children learn about their parents' flaws in typical teen-experience movies, Tyler learns about his father's. But Tyler's revelations don't just knock the parents in question off their childhood pedestal and make them more human; instead, they make their father more inhuman for being able to commit the horrible crimes he did. Tyler's early years of development are marred by this dark revelation. In general, coming-of-age films end with the protagonist changing his perspective on his world and looking to a future, whether hopeful or uncertain. Tyler's worldview certainly changes, but as the film closes with death and the notion of the forces of evil being inevitable, both he and we question the world as we know it.

Tyler struggles with his views of his father as a murderer

From the moment he finds the photo scrawled on his father's car, Tyler begins to challenge all of his father's habits. His father's experience of camping, specifically tying knots, and the locked shed where he spends too much time, becomes dark and suspicious, and thus begins the process of Tyler's disillusionment. The the mystery of the killer's identity becomes a secondary story of Tyler's internal conflict of ethics and his loyalty to his father. Framing the story from the boy's perspective adds a refreshing nuance, as we quickly realize that the killer is his father, but it's Tyler's reactions to this that drive the film. From secretly investigating with Kassi to desperately making excuses for her father, the back and forth between her behavior exemplifies her conflicting feelings of disgust and despair.

The climax of this is during their impromptu camping trip, where his father questions Tyler about invading his privacy and discovering the crawl space in the shed. Despite finding the driver's licenses of the women who were killed 10 years ago, Polaroids of them bound and wounded, and blueprints for dividing this crawl space into torture chambers, Tyler still clings to the hope that a different explanation. As such, when his father blames his uncle, Tyler immediately jumps to that explanation and reminds us that he is still, in fact, a child who wants to keep in his mind the idolized version of his father. It's a stark contrast from the beginning, where he immediately jumped to suspicions that his father was a serial killer rather than having a specific taste for fantasies, until now, when the revelations become too concrete and Tyler is looking desperately for a way out. His interactions with both Kassi and his father lead him in different directions, leading to the end where he finds a middle ground so that justice is partially served and his family's reputation is not affected.

Dylan McDermott transforms into 'The Clovehitch Killer'

As much as Plummer's emotional performance is integral to the film's success, it is Dylan McDermottDon (Tyler's father) who demands our attention as he walks across the screen, teasing us with his display of morality and respect. McDermott is completely unrecognizable as she completely transformed her look for this film. During an interview with GQ magazine, he explains how he wanted everything to be erased from this performance. “I knew it was time to show people a different side,” Dylan explains. “We did a prosthetic belly, which weighed 60 pounds more. I changed my voice, I dressed differently, I walked differently. Everything from top to bottom, there was not an iota of Dylan going in there. He was gone “. Considering how iconic it is from the first season of American Horror Story, erasing this connection enhances the credibility of McDermott's more “upstanding citizen” performance in the first half of the film.

Transforming into this seemingly normal man who is a devout Christian, a loving family man, and a pillar of the community, McDermott handles this innocuous character with ease. What really disturbs Don is that despite knowing that he is a psychotic killer, he is actually a good father. He connects with his sons during their conversations, makes sure his son's first girlfriend is comfortable and welcomed into the family, and saves enough money for Tyler to go to leadership camp despite financial hardship. As such, when the film deviates from Tyler's point of view and Don's facade falls, he's still annoying even when we already know he's the killer. This is where McDermott's performance really shines, which is a little more reminiscent of his own American Horror Story paper as he writhes in frustration and desperation for another kill. We see this when he ridiculously tries to dazzle Tyler as he stands over his bound and unconscious victim, becoming that arrogant, manipulative character again.

while The Clovehitch Killer initially drawing us in through the painful revelations and confusion of Tyler's experience, McDermott's drastic change in performance and overall shift in tone paralyze us with disgust and horror. Portraying a true story in a unique framework, The Clovehitch Killer still manages to deftly capture the terrifying carnage that this serial killer's victims had to endurebut also adds how this clearly affects the killer's family and relationships.

The Clovehitch Killer is available to stream now on Netflix in the US

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