The Alphabet Killer (2008)

My Rating: 3/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “Believing that it’s a true story is impossible!”

Believably twitchy and preternaturally pallid, Ms. Dushku plays Megan Paige, a workaholic detective who suffers a nervous breakdown when her hunt for a young girl’s killer is accompanied by visions of the decomposing deceased. Two years in an institution and one diagnosis of schizophrenia later, Megan returns to work to learn that the killer has resurfaced using the same M.O.: choosing victims whose first and last names begin with the same letter.

The Alphabet Killer

Loosely based on a series of murders that took place in Rochester in the 1970s, “The Alphabet Killer” relies less on the novelty of its premise than on the positioning of solid actors in minor roles (including Melissa Leo and Martin Donovan as the tortured parents of a murdered child) and the intelligence of its star. Yet the out-of-left-field ending, rich with sequel potential, may be its scariest scene: there are, after all, an awful lot of letters in the alphabet.