Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again host a fundraiser for Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.
Today’s theme: Made for TV
About the Author: Parker Simpson is a writer and podcaster focusing on cult films and their social impacts. They currently cohost Where Is My Mind, a podcast focusing on underappreciated films from a variety of genres and countries. They have also held panels, chartered local organizations, and written articles to their blog. When not writing or studying, they like to spend time with their pets and go outside. Check out the podcast Linktree and blog.
Every year, I pick something without a horror tag for Horror Gives Back. One year it was Terence Young’s Wait Until Dark, another it was Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein. This year it’s The Riverman, and I only found out halfway through watching when I realized it was still scary, but in a different way from the other films I have on my list. I’m going to blame my current fixation on Cary Elwes for this blunder as he is the reason I am here.
The Riverman premiered less than a year after Gary Ridgway pled guilty to 49 counts of aggravated first degree murder (among other charges) and was sentenced to life in prison. Nicknamed “the Green River Killer”, most of his victims were sex workers or vulnerable young women he would pick up, rape, and murder before dumping their bodies and visiting them after the fact. While the film does show the early parts of the case in which Ridgway was a suspect, it mainly focuses on Robert Keppel’s work as a profiler on the Green River Task Force; more specifically, his attempts to profile a suspect by interviewing Ted Bundy.
The film similarly mirrors the real life sequence of events, from Bundy mailing Keppel offering his work-based job experience to aid in profiling the Green River Killer (nicknamed “Riverman” by Bundy) while Ridgway became a suspect to Bundy attempting to get a stay of execution by confessing to multiple unsolved murders. Initially cleared by polygraph, the task force took a DNA sample from Ridgway which later linked him to the victims. While Bundy was correct about many aspects of the killings, he was likely projecting his own psychology onto the suspect and ultimately wasn’t very helpful in the grand scheme of things. These interviews later inspired The Silence of the Lambs, specifically Clarice Starling’s interactions with Hannibal Lecter.
You would never register this as an A&E-produced TV movie due to how much The Riverman shows. Not only do we see fairly graphic images of waterlogged corpses (not vintage Forensic Files graphic, but still shocking for basic cable), but we get detailed descriptions of sexual violence and necrophilia from the perpetrator’s perspective and reenactments of Bundy’s crimes. It’s not as vicious as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but there’s good reason the entire film is on an infamous bootleg site (although someone has uploaded the film on YouTube here).
What really sells the creepiness is the central performances, however inconsistent they can be. Bruce Greenwood does a solid job as Robert Keppel, mostly capturing how invested Keppel was in real life. Across the table from him is Elwes as Ted Bundy, and I promise, even if you have seen him in some eerie roles (see: Kiss the Girls), nothing will prepare you for how easily he’s able to get under your skin here. He’s not the spitting image of Bundy (especially not with the wig he’s wearing in a recreation of this infamous mugshot) and his accent is inconsistent (why does he have a lisp for half his scenes?), but he is extremely unnerving to watch, particularly in close ups shots featuring his eyebrow acting. You could argue he’s doing his best Hannibal Lecter impression the entire time; the aspect of quid pro quo remains, but much like the real life case, the film gradually becomes less about profiling a suspect and more about digging into Bundy’s pathology and “why” behind his crimes. Elwes leans into this intent and chews the scenery along the way, picking up on Bundy’s real mannerisms to deliver what may be one of the scariest performances I’ve seen this year. His chemistry with the grounded yet determined Greenwood really elevates the film and makes you think it’s a lot better than it actually is.
Outside of the interviews, the film does an alright job with everything else. I was particularly entertained by the sequence of confronting and interviewing Ridgway, as well as when Keppel goes driving around the seedy parts of town to get into the headspace of the killer(s), only to be foiled by local police. The characters around Keppel are fine but not particularly memorable (save for Sam Jaeger’s Detective Dave Reichert, who is notably brash compared to Keppel’s focused demeanor). The flashback scenes to Bundy kidnapping and killing women are considerably disturbing not just for the reasons mentioned above, but mainly because it’s then you remember “oh, that’s the guy from The Princess Bride talking down to his victim on the way to a soon-to-be murder scene”. It’s not far-fetched to say that’s what prevents this movie from contributing to the glorification of serial killers in modern culture; it takes the viewers down to the pits of these individuals’ minds and places them within their thought process without the romanticization nor aestheticizing of their crimes. There is little detachment between what’s on screen, the real life event, and the viewer, and I believe that’s what makes this film so effective, regardless of its production quality and performances.
I’m surprised more people haven’t seen this considering how well integrated true crime is in our culture nowadays. Maybe the words “TV movie” make people think this will be something cheap and stupid. It may not have the budget that modern streaming originals have, but it’s more well thought out and true to life than most. Definitely worth seeking out – I’m now curious to see what Keppel’s book of the same name has to offer about Bundy’s psyche.
