It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This French serial killer movie is based on fact but an intertitle at the start tells us that it is also a work of 'imagination'. It's the kind of film the Americans do better but it has a clammy quality nevertheless and revealing the killer in the opening minutes actually adds to the tension and it's well acted and it's well directed by Cedric Anger. For reasons that will become clear very early on it concentrates very much on the police investigation while at the same time giving us a good, detailed psychological portrait of the killer. Unfortunately the film doesn't appear to have had much of a distribution so it's very possible it passed you by.

Quite a sober, depressing and eerie account of a true tale (different names and some details, though) about a serial killer (he got caught pretty early on, but until then it seems he was only warming up), in which the viewer mostly just follows the main character's actions; a frustrated young man who works as a policeman whose history is mostly unclear, but there are little hints about his utter frustrations and how "his sensitive side was destroyed by a careless society" (or words to that effect), as he himself states at some point in the film.It will be difficult, if not impossible, to prove that the aforementioned details were exactly as in the Alain Lamare case, but the film easily succeeds in presenting a haunting portrait of a man gone completely crazy, but at the same time shows a lot of restraint, has the perfect cover, is quite intelligent and physically apt. Though I will readily admit he made a silly mistake by leaving his fingerprints on those car plates - which is how he got caught.Guillaume Canet plays Franck Neuhart with much conviction, but really, none of the cast members fail; Ana Girardot, as the burdened woman who unwittingly strikes up a relationship with Franck, deserves a special mention as well. The atmosphere and cinematography are appropriately depressing (almost to point of being dreamlike, which reflects the strange state in which Franck is in), in which the beautiful countryside of France - mostly filmed at night, or when it rains or it is misty - helps a lot.9 out of 10.

This is something of a hybrid inasmuch as it is based on real events that happened thirty years ago and the perpetrator is still very much alive and incarcerated in a secure psychiatric unit. What is never made really clear is why a gendarme would suddenly begin killing young girls at random, initially running them down and later picking them up as hitch-hikers, shooting them and dumping them by the roadside. There is no attempt at sexual molestation, the killing itself seems to provide sufficient satisfaction. It is not surprising that Guillaume Canet elected to play the lead. This fine actor/director can take his pick of leading roles but, not unlike Isabelle Huppert, he has a penchant for the offbeat and unusual and once again he delivers a compelling performance. As an added twist the murderer is a gendarme, a French title not unlike special Constable in England. As the murders take place in the area in which he works he is, in effect, investigating his own crimes - Yves Montand of course did much the same thing in Police Python 357 but that was a fictional situation whilst this is very real. Not perhaps everyone's cup if The but the central performance is well worth seeing.

I always like movies based on true stories. I also like suspense story. This one is interesting as it is a crime story and the suspect is also a law enforcer. This French thriller is based on a true story where a gendarmerie (a type of national security force in France) shot young women at random between in 1978 and 1979. The strange and fascinating thing is he was assigned to investigate his own case. The movie is quite thrilling and haunting. As the story is told from the perspective of this sick man, we follow him around and witness all his strange acts towards himself: he has a habit of self-torture – barb- wired himself, take icy bath and beat himself up. He lives alone though he has a family whom he does not seem to be close to. He has a habit of distancing himself from society and his family. On relationship, he seems to have difficulty with intimacy even though he has an admirer. Obviously he is sick and needs help. The horrible thing is he has a reputable job and seems to function well. He is in the gendarmerie which enables him to use guns and a command of respect from innocent women. Don't his colleagues and admirer notice anything? If so what do they do? If not, why not? It is buzzard and keeps you on the edge of worrying who will be the next victim and how he will be caught. It is more thrilling as we do not know which part is true and which part is pure fiction.Now the story itself is interesting but I wish there would be more description/insights on how and why he became who he was, as well as how he was trapped. The tempo is a bit slow so it feels kind of dragging. But the acting was good and on the whole it is quite engaging to watch, particularly if you are interested in personality development.