H.H. Holmes: America’s First Serial Killer
Directed by John Borowski
Facets Video
scribbled by LM Campbell
H.H. Holmes was a serial killer lifted right out of a Hammer horror movie. He owned a castle that contained secret compartments, hidden rooms and trapdoors in the floor. His basement contained an airtight gassing room, vats of acid for stripping flesh from bone and a fully stocked torture chamber replete with rack, shackles and other instruments of pain. He killed for monetary gain, but tortured for the sheer pleasure of watching others suffer. No one knows exactly how many people he killed. And with all of these highly erotic details, director John Borowski still follows the lackadaisical paradigm used in every other true-crime film and book. This tedious new documentary uncovers the madness that encapsulated the life of Herman Mudget, aka Doctor H.H. Holmes, aka the Torture Doctor and dissected his deeds into an arid and clinically sterile grocery list of events. No new information is gleaned from the film, nor is Holmes’ malicious acts described in any detail. A man of such evil distinction deserves much better than this. Avoid…