Squealer (2023)
2/10
Ever hear a turkey squeal?
21 December 2023
Exactly. Even for someone who can dig splatter and exploitation, this one really was a waste of film stock and everyone's time. As others have noted, it's based on the Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, and yet again we're treated to the fiction that it takes place in the US (yes, it was filmed in New Mexico, but so what?) because... because why? Because they don't want to shatter everyone's belief that all Canadians are *nice*? Trust me, they aren't - I've been in a room (twice, in fact) with Kevin O'Leary. But I'll not go off on that tangent. The point is that they could have stuck closer to the actual story and probably improved the movie, because it really wouldn't be possible to make it any worse. Some of the facts of the case are much creepier than they portrayed, such as the Pickton farm actually being very close to the populated areas that had grown around it rather than way out in the country as suggested in the movie. And everything about where he lived and what he did was far more squalid and creepy than portrayed, as much Ed Gein and Texas Chainsaw Massacre as forensic procedural, as the poice and MEs spent *years* sifting through the muck in search of DNA traces of the dozens of women who had been killed. It's as though the filmmakers chose to pick the least interesting path through the entire story. I dunno how Graham Greene got roped into this.

So why a 2 instead of a 1, which is the lowest rating I use (I won't do 0 because they aren't counted)? Nudity. The braless cop was a treat and the victim with the pierced nipples was impressive, though I'm pretty sure those were prosthetics. See? I can be cerebral and shallow at the same time. Anyway, I watched this one so you don't have to. There are other movies based on this story that are worth the time.
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