The Rosary Murders

Donald Sutherland is good, but he can't make this film worth seeing all by himself. The director doesn't seem to have the temperament that's needed for a successful thriller, the plot moves slowly and monotonously, and the whole thing just plods on to an ending that fails to explain the killer's motivation satisfyingly. (*1/2)

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.

"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.

I like religious horror and giallos. For example one of my favorite horror films is Alice Sweet Alice, I think The Exorcist is a well-written drama, and I lean towards the Italian films with spiritual or religious imagery. The Rosary Murders deals with a lot of complex issues in the Catholic church, someone might argue the plot of this film is absurd, but it's not. A priest cannot tell on a child rapist or a serial killer even if they confess. One of the reasons I am giving this flick a solid six is because it attempted to confront these kinds of issues head-on, as well as other problems like overly focusing on sexuality in the American conservative churches to the point of insanity, and the mandatory celibacy of priests.

But to see Donald Sutherland in this film a scant fifteen years after the epic supernatural giallo, Don't Look Now, is a little sad. The Rosary Murders would have been so much better handled by a director with a better eye, who actually understood lighting and atmosphere and editing techniques. Instead, this movie looks like it could have been made for tv, and I consider it a stylistic flaw when handling this kind of subject matter. No one wants to watch a movie about religious murders that looks like an episode of Hill Street Blues.

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.