The Riverman

An Intriguing Look Inside the Mind of the Campus Killer
Recipe: Take Carry Elwes, Bruce Greenwood and Kathleen Quinlan, then add an interesting plot, stir all together for about 90 minutes and then enjoy the end product--a surprisingly good and tasty morsel of a movie.

"The Riverman" is based upon a well written fact based book by Robert Keppel, PhD, the man who interviewed Ted Bundy with the hopes of getting inside Bundy's mind in effort to help find the infamous Green River Killer. The interviews aided the Washington state authorities in the apprehension of Gary Leon Ridgway for nearly 50 murders to a point, however, Keppel's talks with Bundy actually achieved more success in attaining Bundy's motives for his own killings, along with getting Bundy to add closure for several Washington families by confessing to several of the Seattle area's unsolved murders.

This movie could easily have been called "The Campus Killer Interviews" or "A Brief Look Inside the Mind of the Lady Killer" since it was more about Bundy's...

Cary Elwes better than Anthony Hopkins?
From what I remember, it was Ted Bundy who coined the name "Riverman" for the killer of prostitutes in the Seattle area during the 70s and 80s. I guess the name derived from the fact that the then unknown post-Bundy killer liked to dump his victims in the Green River.

Not a bad name given by not such a good guy, but Cary Elwes is fantastic here as the supposedly nastiest serial killer in US history: Ted Bundy. Sure, there have been those that have killed more people, such as Gary Ridgeway -- the actual Riverman himself -- but few that have killed in such a violent fashion such as Bundy. But while Bundy was indeed bad, Mr. Elwes is not, never devolving into caricature as he seems to invade the true psyche of Bundy in this film. I gave the film "Silence of the Lambs" five stars, but I believe that Mr. Elwes was given more realistic dialog here than Anthony Hopkins in that award winning film, and this lesser known actor took advantage of it.

I read the book...

Loved it...
Very creepy and well written, I thought. Cary Elwes was excellent. I haven't read the book, but it is on my wishlist.

Click to Editorial Reviews