Unless you really have been living under a rock for the last twenty years, you know the name of John Wayne Gacy, the notorious 'KILLER CLOWN.' This new DVD from Lion's Gate is the dramatization, based on a true story (duh), of one of America's most gruesome, perverted murderers of all time.

The film opens with the young JW Gacy accompanying his father on a fishing trip. The elder Gacy is hostile to his withdrawn son, and treats him like dirt, taunting the boy to "hit him" and be a man. As the years go by, Gacy is incarcerated for sodomy, but is paroled after 18 months. He returns to Chicago to begin a new life and even starts a family. By 1976, Gacy is an accepted member of his community, a respected entrepreneur who dons a clown outfit for hospital functions and even hires the "bad boys" of town as employees of his handyman business. However, his wife suffers as Gacy neglects her to dote on his mother and the 'boys." Plus, there is an abominable smell emanating from the home's crawlspace, as well as maggots under the house. Gacy leads a double life; at night, he cruises Chicago picking up young men. Sometimes, he listens to their story and gives them money to return home. Other times, he tortures, rapes, and kills them, burying their bodies in the crawlspace. On the job, he lets his 'boys' smoke weed, and wrassles with them. One of the boys, Steve, has an issue with Gacy about money, so he and two friends put a beat down on the boss and take his cash. That night, Gacy returns home very late, carrying a large, oddly shaped package. Woken by the noise, his wife Karen goes to the garage to investigate but finds her husband in the crawlspace, "putting down lime to deaden the smell." At Gacy's July 4th picnic, the city alderman extols Gacy's commitment to community service; Gacy hires a new boy to replace Steve, who has "gone to Costa Rico." Karen snoops around in the garage again, and finds beefcake magazines and handcuffs in a drawer. She confronts Gacy, who becomes confused and angry. Karen cannot take her husband's eccentricities anymore, and leaves with the daughters.

An enraged Gacy clobbers one of his boys, Dave, with a hammer, then relents and apologizes, threatening the exposure of the boys 'affair' with him if Dave tells anyone. Gacy offers a room to the new boy Tom; his girlfriend is creeped out by Gacy, but Tom moves in regardless. A cruising Gacy continues to pick up male prostitutes and torture them. Gacy buys a car from a soon to be doomed young man, reselling the vehicle to one of his boys. When a lieutenant investigates that young man's disappearance, Gacy is hostile and disavows any knowledge. The lieutenant is suspicious of Gacy, but has no evidence. He puts two undercover cops on stakeout duty at the Gacy house. Without a warrant, they can only observe. Gacy tries to seduce Tom, but the boy rejects him. The situation causes Gacy to kill again, but the crawlspace is full. Gacy resorts to dumping the body in the river. Afterwards, a guilty Gacy confesses to his stunned pal Hal that he's "been naughty" and has killed lots of boys. . Later that day, Tom tells Gacy he's leaving for the West Coast. An enraged Gacy manages to handcuff Tom and starts to strangle him when the torture is interrupted by a neighbor's arrival. Tom flees the house, and with this "reasonable circumstance", the cops are able to enter the Gacy house. They find the torture devices and 29 corpses buried in the crawlspace. A fugitive Gacy is caught and brought to trial. Executed by lethal injection in 1994, Gacy's last words are "kiss my ass."

The GACY movie tries to be a docu-drama about the most notorious killer in American history, but unfortunately the results are rather superficial, although entertaining. If not for the cursing, this film could be a "TV movie of the week"; the murder scenes are mostly implied, not shown (which is probably a good thing.) We are shown that Gacy has issues with his abusive father, who contributed to his insanity, but not much else is offered to explain why he did what he did. The movie focuses on "highlights" from Gacy's life, but we never get into the psyche of the killer. There is little back-story on his marriage, his business career that so impressed the community, or his well-documented job as a clown (although his home is decorated in a disturbing clown motif, that aspect of Gacy's psyche is not really expounded upon.) Also, Gacy picked up over 2000 men, but let some go, freed others after "only" torturing them, and murdered relatively few (33). What were the underlying reasons behind those choices? That question is never explored, and may be never answered. I will say that Mark Holton (all grown up from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure") does an exceptional acting turn as JW Gacy. He has a disturbingly close resemblance to the real Gacy, and his acting captures the dual nature of the serial killer; he switches from rage to joviality instantly, much like the real Gacy was said to do. I just wish the creators had spent more time delving into the mind of the madman; inquiring minds want to know "why".

The DVD of GACY offers a few nice extras. Foremost is an optional commentary by star Mark Holton and producers Sue Rodgers and Larry Rattner, giving us insights into the production. There is also an "R" rated trailer.The full frame picture is very clear, and the audio is clean and distinct.

If you want to see the true story of John Wayne Gacy, there are several true documentaries that will give you nightmares. If that's not your bag, GACY tells the story well without a huge amount of exploitation or psychoanalysis. Think of it as "Killer Clown Lite."