The Rosary Murders

I grew up in Detroit, so it's surprising that I've never seen this film. I played college baseball, and one of the guys on our team went to high school at Holy Redeemer (the church in this movie), so it was interesting to me in that way, as I'd never seen this church before.

The thing that bothered me as the movie ended is why the killer was killing Catholic priests and nuns. Maybe it was there and I missed it, but the end of the movie left me thinking "why?". After watching the whole movie, I felt let down at the ending.

Father Koesler (Sutherland) seemed to me to be less than devoted to his calling. Why did he break Catholic rules and baptize a baby born out of wedlock? Whether or not that's a good rule, he is required to abide by it, not pick and choose which he'll obey and which he'll ignore. And why did he break into someone's house? Why would a priest commit a felony?

I'm considering re-watching this film to see if I missed a few things.

Donald Sutherland plays Father Robert Koesler, a priest in Detroit who hears the confession of a murderer who is going around offing various priests and nuns. After doing some amateur sleuthing, Koesler figures out who the killer is. But he's bound by church law to say nothing. His superiors - among them, the hard nosed, conservative Ted Nabors (Charles Durning) - believe that nothing can violate the sanctity of the confessional. So, as you can guess, Koesler is a very troubled man. Koznicki (Josef Sommer), the detective on the case, is not as concerned with the rules of the Catholic church, aiming to catch himself a killer.

This sure sounds like a neat premise for a thriller, but on the whole the story isn't told in a particularly interesting way. The subplot of a potential romance, between Koesler and Pat Lennon (a reasonably appealing Belinda Bauer), really doesn't add anything to the material. Fred Walton ("When a Stranger Calls" '79, "April Fool's Day" '86) directs with competence and gives the proceedings a very somber quality. On location shooting ("The Rosary Murders" was actually filmed in Detroit) helps a bit, although the story doesn't exactly hold any surprises. (The killer turns out to be a truly disgusting piece of work.) That's too bad, considering that the two credited screenwriters are director Walton and the great author Elmore Leonard. There is a moment around the one hour mark that struck this viewer as simply too hard to swallow.

There are some solid actors and familiar faces among the cast: Anita Barone, Rex Everhart, Stefan Gierasch, Tom Mardirosian, Mark Margolis, James Murtaugh, Lupe Ontiveros, Addison Powell. But the movie is anchored the most by Sutherland, who plays Koesler as an easygoing, likable chap with a fairly progressive and compassionate attitude.

He and Durning manage to make this worth seeing.

Six out of 10.

Donald Sutherland is a Detroit priest who hears the confession of a serial killer with a grudge against the clergy, and is later forced by the ethics of his vocation to (reluctantly) hunt down the murderer himself, unearthing a spine-chilling string of motivation behind each new death. It could have been just another routine shocker, but a clever script and some unusually taciturn direction turns the otherwise familiar material into a modest but intriguing whodunit (actually more a 'whydunit') set against the rituals and mysteries of the Catholic Church, always a reliable source of guilt and intrigue. The steady accumulation of clues and evidence is interrupted only by an unsurprising (and unnecessary) romantic subplot, which happily compromises neither the mystery itself nor Sutherland's oath of celibacy.

"The Rosary Murders" follows a Catholic parish in Detroit that is plagued by a series of brutal murders. One of the priests (Donald Sutherland) is joined by a journalist (Belinda Bauer) attempting to cover the story; both aim to stop the killer before he dispatches more nuns, monks, and members of the Holy Order.

This is a downbeat and gloomy affair from Fred Walton, who, the year prior, directed the playful, joke-filled slasher "April Fool's Day." "The Rosary Murders" is more a return to Walton's style as seen in "When a Stranger Calls" (1979) in that it is a much more austere, dour take on the genre. This film gives no reprieve, and the subject matter is relentlessly grim. It has a similar taste to other Catholic-themed slasher films, such as "Alice, Sweet Alice" (1976), or even "The Exorcist III" (1990), both of which set a serial killer narrative against the stark backdrop of the Catholic Church. There is something inherently transfixing (and sinister) about this formula that evokes a creep factor that is hard to shake (especially if you were brought up Catholic). "The Rosary Murders" also has a late-'80s flair about it that at times feels redolent of a number of "Unsolved Mysteries" episodes.

What works best about the film perhaps is the atmosphere: the wintry Detroit setting only adds to the ambiance, and the gothic cathedral and parish buildings are moodily photographed throughout. Donald Sutherland gives a muted but solid performance as the central priest, while Charles Durning has a smaller part as one of Sutherland's superiors. Belinda Bauer is great as the spunky reporter and has good chemistry with Sutherland, but it is ultimately wasted as her character is given little to do before altogether disappearing for the last quarter of the film (which is one of its main faults). Another instance where the film falters is that it has an even-keeled tone from beginning to end that drains the proceedings of any high suspense; the identity and motive of the killer is also unveiled too early, leaving little surprises to be had, and where the film feels like it should reach a fever pitch, it simply doesn't.

All that being said, I still found "The Rosary Murders" absorbing and extremely watchable. It is a dour, gloomy affair that works better as a mood piece than it does a thriller or mystery. Its narrative issues aside, the shadowy halls of the parish and the chilly Detroit exteriors impress a somberness on the viewer that is unusually stirring. 7/10.

The author has relied heavily upon the literary device of COINCIDENCE in constructing his plot; i.e., he expects you to believe that several people living in the same part of the country would have certain proper names. I'd love to explain that in detail, but doing so would ruin part of the ending. Rent this movie and see if you agree. But this flaw will not diminish your enjoyment of the film, as there is enough action to keep the murder mystery fan happy. I was never bored during any of the times I watched this film. I recommend this any day of the week.