Based on the true story of Andrej Romanovic Cikatilo, also known as the Monster of Rostov. AR Evilenko (Malcolm McDowell) is a serial killer who killed and ate more than 50 children in the old Soviet Republic. Vadim Timurovic Lesiev (Marton Csokas) is the detective who tracks down and catches him.
Special Agent Matti
The trouble with basing a story on someone's life is that life is messy. It doesn't form a nice narrative flow. Things happen at random. Time passes between events of significance. That's the difficulty with making movies out of someone's life.
On the upside, you can get things happening that no scriptwriter would even dream of doing. A school teacher who kills children and eats them? A state spy who's also a serial killer? The fall of communism turning a clerk into a murderer? Never in a million Hollywood years would this story make it to the big screen - unless it's all true.
Evilenko has one big flaw and that's that most of the cast has been dubbed. From English into English. It makes everything those characters say seem suspect (until you catch on and then it's just annoying because the dialogue doesn't match that of those around them) even when they're perfectly innocent. I don't know why some actors were dubbed.
If you like a good serial killer flick then you'll like Evilenko. Just remember that it's a true drama, not a thriller.
MA 15+ (Adult themes, Medium level violence)
108 minutes (1:48 hours)
DVD rental: 22 June 2005
VHS rental: 22 June 2005
