H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer

Imagine you wanted to do an exploitation documentary about a character that has been mostly ignored by history.

Most people know very little about H. H. Holmes, the serial killer. So you google the guy, put together about ten pages of notes, and then do a walk-through of the mansion, using whatever photos are on file.

You get a documentary that goes like this: "Here is bedroom #4, where several women may have been murdered." Then you do the same for the rest of the house, and soon you have a one hour documentary that has very little real documentation of anything, and no information that is new or interesting.

You can google everything that is in this documentary in ten minutes or less, and save yourself 64 minutes of boring narration. There are no credible sources used, no orignal investigation records/documents from the FBI or any other Law Enforcement Agency, just information that was googled and cobbled together into a very bogus documentary.

H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer (2004)

*** (out of 4)

Good, 64-minute documentary taking a look at H.H. Holmes, the Chicago doctor who has become known as American's first true serial killer. Throughout the documentary we learn about Holmes early life including his alternate names and then we get into details about his time at the University of Michigan where he got to "act out" his fantasy of working with dead bodies. This leads to him getting a job in Chicago and then building a castle where he would put acid baths, secret pathways, torture devices and this would become the final resting place to an unknown amount of people. Director and writer John Borowski does a pretty good job at telling the story of this madman and he does this by voice-over narration as well as interviews with experts on the subject. It's clear that no one will ever really know how many people he slaughtered but I just found it rather amazing that no one suspicions were ever risen to the point to where they'd at least take a look at this guy. I mean, not only did he kill people but he would then sell their skeletons to medical schools. It was also fascinating learning about the 1893 Columbian Exposition where apparently fifty people went missing but again no one can tell how many were at the hands of Holmes. I think the weakest thing in the documentary are the reenactments, which really weren't all that impressive. Still, that's just a minor complaint as I'm sure many people might be interested in the subject and will find that there hasn't been too many looks at him. Overall this documentary is worth watching if you're interested in hearing about the subject.

I came to this movie after seeing its rave review on Bloody-Disgusting.com. A fan of historical crime writer Harold Schechter's (who is interviewed in this film), I was surprised and delighted to see someone had attempted a documentary on H.H. Holmes, the subject of Schechter's book "Depraved". Then again, I suppose it wasn't too surprising, given the bestseller success of Erik Larsen's "The Devil in the White City", and the upcoming movie of same.

John Borowski knows his way around the documentary form, inter-cutting vintage photos, interviews, and clever re-enactments with a strong sense of balance. HHH:AFSK succeeds in conveying a sense of time and place, and communicating Holmes's psychosis. The narrative is gripping, and there's never a dull moment here. Unlike a lot of indie documentary directors, Borowski knows that making a documentary is still all about Film-making, not merely filmed journalism.

If HHH:AFSK lacks in any department, it is in conveying the full, jaw-dropping magnitude of Holmes's most audacious crime: his systematic murder of the Pitezel family, carried out while manipulating them to travel in two separate groups halfway across the US and even into Canada. Borowski also leaves out the detail that, on this evil trek, Holmes was also dragging along one of his three clueless wives! Borowski surprisingly rushes through the journey, making it all seem like just another of Holmes's outrageous deeds. Compared to the way Schechter evoked the cruelty of Holmes's actions and the heartbreaking emotional trauma suffered by the Pitezel children's mother in his book "Depraved", Borowski misses a chance for some really strong emotional depth.

But some things are, I suppose, going to get left out in an hour-long production. The running time is kind of odd. Too long to sell to TV (this film is certainly worthy of the History Channel, on which I have seen considerably worse stuff), too short for feature length. And yet, by the time it's over, you feel that to go to 90 minutes might have been just a shade too much. At 64 minutes, HHH:AFSK is perhaps just right, artistically — though 70-75 would have been ideal, allowing Borowski to flesh out the story as I described above. Commercially, 64 minutes is problematic. Perhaps a direct-to-DVD release was all Borowski had in mind from the first.

Veteran actor Tony Jay provides brilliant narration with his one-of-a-kind voice (why isn't this man more famous!?), and there's a swell orchestral, Bernard Hermann-esquire score that I'm surprised Borowski was able to get. If anything gave me an unintentional smile watching the DVD, it was perhaps Borowski's tireless self-promotion in the bonus materials. I'd have gladly sacrificed Borowski's efforts on his making-of featurette if he had channeled that work into just a bit more of his documentary.

A worthy film for fans of true crime and American history rolled into one.

Being a bit of a "true crime" buff, it's always nice to see a documentary that is well researched and contains all the most important elements of a true story. That appears to be the case in this well-made documentary film about late 1800's serial-killer HH Holmes. Writer/Director John Borowski pulls this story out of the basement and reintroduces it to the world in this engrossing documentary. You've heard the names Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy, but have you heard the name HH Holmes? Maybe not. His crimes took place during the late 1800's and have been overshadowed by the gruesome misadventure of more recent killers. However, those of you that are interested in the whole "true crime" thing might be intrigued to learn of Holmes' horrific crimes and how they share similarities in some aspects with modern killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, and other notorious bad boys. A Must See for true crime buffs!

Torture chambers, acid vats, greased chutes and gassing rooms were just some of the devices of death designed by the Torture Doctor, H.H. Holmes in his castle of horrors. Follows Holmes' entire life as a criminal mastermind.

As a resident of Wisconsin, I have always found serial murder interesting. Yes, I do think there is a connection, because we have Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer in our state legends. And HH Holmes, being from Chicago, is one of those that captures my interest -- Chicago is the closest large city, and its history is almost local.

This is a pretty good documentary. Of course, being a story that happened in the 1800s, you can only have so much video footage. But they flesh it out with photos, reenactments, and plenty of modern-day experts on Holmes and murder. I was pleased, and at just over an hour it gives you plenty of information without dragging on.