Willed to Kill (2012) Reviews

• Fast-paced, well-made, well constructed modern thriller

  mgconlan-12013-01-08

  This morning I watched a quite good thriller I'd recorded from Lifetime over the weekend: "Willed to Kill," a 2012 production from Incendo Media that featured Sarah Jane Morris (hot!) as Boston homicide detective Karyn Mitchell (the pretentious spelling of the first name — what's wrong with "Karen"? — bothers me a little), who's already blown away two previous serial killers when, in one of the most chilling opening sequences ever put on film, she enters a house where a knife-wielding psycho has tied up and gagged a real woman, set her at a dining table with a bunch of mannequins, and is preparing to torture and kill her. When Karyn crashes the scene, the baddie starts teasing her, asking who she would want to play her in the movie they're going to make of his life (for his own account, he's so closely channeling "The Silence of the Lambs" his choice to play himself would obviously be Anthony Hopkins!), then goes after her with his knife and she shoots him in self-defense. For this, she's christened "Dirty Harriet" by her colleagues on the Boston PD (of course, this being a Lifetime movie, Montreal is "playing" Boston), and the fruits of her labors are an internal-affairs investigation, a dressing-down by her chief, Lt. Schneider (David McIlwraith), a sour attitude from her partner and former fiancé, Gavin McNaab (Ross McCall), and mandatory therapy sessions with Dr. Aaron Kade (Michael Riley). Then a couple of murders occur in which the victims are scarred post-mortem with the Greek letter that symbolizes Hades, trademark of the so-called "Hades Killer" who operated 15 years earlier. Karyn is convinced the new killings are the work of a copycat, and she has to deal with a succession of weirdos falsely confessing to the crimes as well as the watchful eyes of her fellow cops, who want her to catch Hades, all right, but to catch him alive this time and allow the judicial system to take its course instead of summarily executing him. Director Philippe Gagnon and writer James Taylor Phillips give us a surprisingly broad suspect pool namely by making just about every male in Karyn's vicinity so unbearably twitchy we're sure one of them must be the killer. Among the suspects she encounters are Arthur Brady (Kent McQuaid) — whose recently deceased uncle was one of the suspects in the original Hades murders — along with another wanna-be who actually kills someone in his efforts to convince the cops he is Hades, but whose crime has just the opposite effect when Karyn points out that he was considerably sloppier than the real Hades (or at least the new one — you know a thriller plot is convoluted when one of the crimes is committed by a copycat of the copycat!). "Willed to Kill"'s plot takes an interesting turn when Gavin invites Karyn to his upcoming wedding — "You're not supposed to marry the rebound!" she insists, though he says he got her pregnant and therefore had to — and Karyn has a meet-cute outside a gym with Mark Hanson (Dylan Bruce, a considerably hunkier good guy than we usually get in a Lifetime movie) and they have sex on the first date and "get serious" thereafter — at least until Karyn decides, on the basis of his inside information and his similar background to the killer (notably the fact that they both lost their wives — Karyn knows this because the killer has been in regular phone contact with her, slipping her bits of background and always hanging up just in time to make sure the police can't complete the trace on his calls), that he's Hades and arrests him. The film cycles through various false suspects and red herrings — including the one I thought was going to be the guilty party, a twitchy reporter who was following her and stalking her to get stories about the case, until he was killed in the next-to-last act — and finally reveals that Hades was (spoiler alert!) Karyn's therapist, Dr. Kade, and that Karyn's father was the original Hades. Karyn's father was never charged with those crimes but was bad enough he was caught and executed anyway, and Karyn actually turned him in when she was 16 — but she agonized about doing that for six months, during which Hades I murdered Dr. Kade's parents, and rather than just kill her Dr. Kade decided to become Hades II, picking his victims from the ranks of career criminals so he wouldn't knock off someone who could be considered an "innocent victim," and comparing himself to Karyn as someone who also killed criminals instead of trusting the legal process. The story is far-fetched and stretches the bounds of legitimate suspension of disbelief, but within that it at least makes sense, the resolution is (more or less) logical and the overall effect is quite chilling and offers everything you want from a suspense film. Director Gagnon stages the action expertly, up to and including the final confrontation (Dr. Kade is planning to take Karyn to the roof of the police building, push her off and then report to his superiors that in their last session she threatened suicide, so they'll believe him when he says she killed herself), which Karyn extricates herself from in a believable manner while it's Dr. Kade who falls off the building and dies. (That was a pity; I was hoping the final frames would be her turning him over to Lt. Schneider and saying, "See? I CAN take someone alive!")

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• the movie gives away its own secret

  alannasser2013-03-18

  It should be said from the start that this is a notch above the typical Lifetime movie. The lead actress is far better than most, and the story is above average. The film employs a familiar trope: the detective is contacted by the murderer during the course of her investigation. The murderer uses a voice distorter and speaks regularly with the detective by telephone. The bad guy is filmed in such a way as not to reveal his identity: from behind, in a shadow, from non-revealing angles. You've seen this many times before. Sometimes the viewer is allowed a bare glimpse of the murderer's chin or nose, but not enough to enable you to recognize the character. - Well, that's how it's supposed to work. But incredibly, the murderer is filmed in several shots so that his identity is clear. The filmmaker shows too much. This is clearly unintentional - you're not supposed to know which character, who, as in all these movies, turns out to be a character you're already familiar with but are not supposed to suspect, will turn out to be the culprit. But you do know, well before the final reveal, if you've been watching with only casual attention. This strikes me as a huge blunder. If you want to be kept in suspense, don't look at the murderer in the scenes in which he is on the telephone with the detective. If you do look, you'll recognize him.

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• I am applying to Guinness book of records for executing the longest yawn

  Ed-Shullivan2017-10-25

  More than anything I dislike when I commit two (2) hours of my time only to find out that the suspect was the most obvious and that this so called "mystery film" was no mystery at all. The main character in this film is the gun toting Boston detective Karyn Mitchell, played with so little character by actress Sarah Jane Morris. I really wanted to enjoy a mystery/thriller that focuses in on a two decade old serial killer named the Hades serial killer. Unfortunately, as the potential suspects kept increasing the actual mystery of the film kept waning. I appreciate that generally speaking, made for TV movies are made within limited time constraints and limited budgets. But why does this type of made for TV serial killer themed film(s) have to not only come with limited intrigue, but also limited acting? I can only imagine how much more interesting this film would have been if someone like Maria Bello, or Kate Beckinsale had accepted the role of lead detective Karyn Mitchell. I can't blame the poor performance all on Sarah Jane Morris. There were other weak acting performances such as with the police forces psychiatrist Doctor Aaron Kade played boringly by actor Michael Riley, and also her love interest what's his name Mark Hanson (hard to remember what scenes he was in as they were the most boring......yaaaaaawwwn) played by Dylan Bruce. Oh, and then came the silly ending when the brilliant detective Karyn Mitchell breaks the case wide open and she brazenly (they say brazen, I would say stupid) approaches her number one suspect without any backup and gets caught with her proverbial pants down (her gun is taken away from her) so we are supposed to be on the edge of our seat. I actually fell off of my chair and my fall woke me up, thus my applying to the Guinness book of records for the longest yawn. The film Willed to Kill has a catchy title, and not much more going for it. I give it a 4/10 for at least trying to create some level of suspense but unfortunately it does not pass the mustard test.

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• Could make you lose the will to live ...

  candyapplegrey2014-03-20

  Hmm. Don't know about 'Willed to Kill' but watching this may make you lose your will to live. It's the typical serial killer fare but somehow accomplishes the feat of being formulaic and implausible at the same time. Quite an achievement. First of all, it's full of totally lame (and I mean seriously limping) jokes and what the scriptwriters obviously believe is entertaining banter, which is entirely unamusing. The lead character (a female detective) jumps from one wrong conclusion to another, going off gung ho and half-cocked whenever she has a lead, never telling anyone where she's going and quite often endangering herself and others in the process before finally, approximately two hours after the rest of us, working out who is really responsible. The protagonist's stupidity is only surpassed by that of her colleagues who are continually pursuing even less likely suspects than she is. As a consequence, you soon lose interest in who did what or why. I think we're supposed to care about a possible romance between the two leads but as it is, they're so badly written, it's hard to give a damn. Just seen that this movie was actually nominated for an award: Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series. Now that really is a mystery.

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• another senseless movie

  geoffox-766-4184672013-05-06

  Another LMN female playing the lead in tight leather clothes, long blonde stringy hair covering her face and a bad actress on top. Sorry, I get so sick of these blonde bimbos acting tough with guns and karate. It's so unbelievable it's funny. The leading men do far better, even with secondary roles. Notably Michael Riley, Dylan Bruce and Ross McCall. They are much more believable even with the empty headed leading lady. How many more of these older women playing younger roles with bleached blonde long stringy hair do we have to view. I have to admit that the style these days of long hair, mostly unkempt and hanging limp off their heads are getting to be a bore. It's bad enough they are all walking the street but we now are forced to watch them on TV. And it always seems that most of the women are older trying to stay young looking. LMN please lets get some ladies with style and class.

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