The Clovehitch Killer

The Clovehitch Killer is a 2018 American coming-of-age thriller film, directed by Duncan Skiles in his directorial debut and written by Christopher Ford. It stars Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis, and Madisen Beaty. The film was mostly inspired by the story of real life serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer.

It premiered at LA Film Festival, on September 22, 2018, and it received a limited theatrical release, on November 16, 2018, distributed by IFC Midnight.

Plot
16-year-old Tyler Burnside lives with his devout Christian family in a small Kentucky town. The town and its residents are haunted by the memory of the Clovehitch Killer, an infamous serial killer who bound and strangled 10 known female victims before apparently disappearing 10 years earlier.

Tyler takes his father's truck one night to see a girl, who finds a bondage photograph between the seats. When word of the photo spreads among the other teenagers in Tyler's church and scout troop, they ostracize him, believing him to be a BDSM fetishist. Tyler, meanwhile, begins to wonder if his father, family man, and community leader, Don Burnside, could have something to do with the Clovehitch Killer. Tyler investigates Don's private shed and finds a hidden compartment containing bondage magazines, along with a Polaroid photograph of a beaten and bound woman. Fearing his father might be the killer, Tyler befriends a teen outcast and amateur Clovehitch historian named Kassi and asks for her help. Kassi is initially skeptical, but they link the photo to a known Clovehitch victim and find blueprints to a BDSM dungeon in the shed. When Tyler explores his house's crawl space, he finds a box containing the driver's licenses of the 10 Clovehitch victims and 3 other women, as well as more Polaroid photographs of beaten and bound women.

Don, now suspicious of Tyler's behavior, takes him camping. To explain the evidence Tyler had uncovered, Don says that the Clovehitch Killer was Tyler's vegetative uncle Rudy, who became paralyzed after the guilt drove him to a suicide attempt. Don says he kept the evidence in hopes of one day giving it to the victims' families. Tyler accepts the explanation, and the two burn all the evidence. Tyler ends the investigation, although Kassi remains unsatisfied with Don's story.

Surprisingly, Don allows Tyler to attend a scout leadership camp, something he'd previously claimed the family had no money for. He then sends his wife Cindy and daughter Susie to visit Cindy's mother for 2 weeks. Home alone, he photographs himself crossdressing in bondage positions, but angrily throws the photos away later. He hears someone ring the doorbell and peers out the window, he quickly takes off the crossdressing stuff and opens the door to find Kassi looking for Tyler. He takes a Polaroid picture of her and asks her to blow on it just as she gets a call on her cell phone and leaves. He then stalks a woman in the grocery store and through town to her home. After casing her house holding a steel wheelbarrow he finds her sliding glass door unlocked and a basement window open and breaks in, finding her asleep, he awakens her, binds her, and begins strangling her. However, Tyler appears in the house with a rifle, and it's revealed that Tyler had never left for camp, but was secretly watching Don with Kassi. The flashback also reveals that Kassi's mother, who went missing 10 years prior, was one of the 3 unknown Clovehitch victims.

Tyler and Kassi try to speak to Don, but he's not home. There are rope fibers on the bed. They go to the house where they'd previously seen him with the stalked woman. Tyler confronts his dad as he's taking photos of the woman tied up. Tyler has a rifle. His father stays surprisingly calm. Tyler tries to talk him into giving himself up. Kassi tries to help the bound woman. His father lies and says that they're having an affair and his mother knows. He grabs Kassi and knocks her out. Confused, Tyler lowers his guard and his father takes the gun from him. He immediately tries to shoot Tyler with it, only to find the chamber empty. The two scuffle and Don tries to strangle Tyler until Kassi awakens and knocks Don unconscious. Kassi begins to dial 9-1-1, but Tyler grabs her hand and stops her. Later they discuss the fact the woman never saw his face so she can't connect Don to the attack.

Later, Don has been declared missing, but Tyler's family remains stable. They're informed that the police have discovered Don's body and his death is considered a suicide. At their church, Tyler delivers a eulogy for Don, intercut with scenes of him and Kassi dragging Don, unconscious, into the forest and framing his death as a hunting accident while cleaning his gun. The forest scene ends with Don slowly waking up and Tyler pointing a pistol at his head. His expression shows that he approves of what Tyler is about to do. Tyler ends the eulogy with, "Dad, if you can hear me, I love you."

Production
The film is set in Kentucky where it also was shot. Director Duncan Skiles took inspiration from the story of Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial killer.

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Clovehitch Killer holds an approval rating of, based on reviews, and an average rating of. Its consensus reads, "The Clovehitch Killer patiently dials up the tension with a story that makes up for a lack of surprises with strong performances and a chilling wit." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59/100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis wrote, "Christopher Ford's screenplay has obvious narrative holes... and the relentless focus on mood over action can drag. Even so, McDermott is admirably unsettling, and Luke McCoubrey's artfully sterile cinematography adds an air of suffocating wholesomeness that can make you squirm." Entertainment Weekly's Dana Schwartz gave the film a B+ grade, writing, "Unlike so many recent horror movies, The Clovehitch Killer is patient with its thrills, almost excruciatingly so", but added that it "falters with the character of Kassi". Emily Yoshida of Vulture said that Don's character was "convincing because it's not terribly sensationalized, and the film's conclusion is similarly smart, completely pulling the rug out from under our expectations of justice and revenge."

Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter called the plot "slow...more reliant on atmosphere than action to build suspense...offers an intriguing perspective on the dark side of Americans values...but lacks the conviction to entirely expose the cultural contradictions that often enable compulsive murderers...It's a missed opportunity."

In a 2019 list of the 50 best serial killer movies of all time, Paste magazine ranked The Clovehitch Killer at #48, writing "This is a devilish movie that does beautifully what horror films are meant to—vex us with fear—through the most deceptively simple of means." Lauded horror author Stephen King wrote about the film, calling it "an excellent small movie", "unbearably suspenseful", and "(n)ot for the faint of heart".