Just added to Netflix is the 2018 thriller movie about the hunt for a serial killer. The Clovehitch Killer, a thriller that recently debuted on Netflix, has won over viewers with its unsettling story of a little child who begins to suspect that his father might be a well-known serial murderer.
The movie was initially presented in a small number of theatres in 2018 and features Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis, and Madisen Beaty.
So does the movie portray a wholly fictional tale, or is it based on actual American historical events?
What is the plot of The Clovehitch Killer?
“Tyler is a good kid, a Boy Scout, raised by a poor but happy family in a tiny, religious town,” according to the official summary of The Clovehitch Killer.
But when he discovers that Don, his father, has unsettling pornography stashed away in the shed, he begins to worry that Don might be the notorious serial killer Clovehitch, who was never apprehended.
“To find the truth in time to save his family, Tyler teams up with Kassi, a troubled teen who is morbidly obsessed with the Clovehitch mythology.”
Does The Clovehitch Killer have a basis in reality?
The Clovehitch Killer tells a fictional story with imaginary characters rather than being directly based on a specific true occurrence.
However, the crimes committed in real life by the so-called BTK Killer, whose real name was Dennis Rader, had some influence on the movie’s premise. From 1974 and 1991, Rader murdered 10 people until being apprehended in 2005.
The BTK Killer: Who Was He?
1945-born serial killer Dennis Rader murdered 10 people between 1974 and 1991. He was a respected member of the community who was known to his family, friends, and community as a married man with two kids.
He worked a variety of jobs, including installing security cameras and catching dogs, in addition to leading scouts and serving as president of his church council.
He nevertheless carried out horrifying killings, often with long periods between them, while privately having terrible sexual fantasies.
When he was committing the killings, he wrote letters to the police and the media outlining his crimes and signing them with the abbreviation BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill), which stands for what he did to his victims.
He was arrested in 2004 after mailing many of these letters. The police couldn’t find his floppy disk writings when he inquired.
The police found metadata in a destroyed Word document that identified him as the last person to change it after submitting it to a neighbouring TV station.
Rader inspired The Clovehitch Killer in many ways. In the film, Don, who plays Rader, is a boy scout leader, churchgoer, and sexual obsessive. Don collects driver’s licenses and photos like Rader and waits before killing again.
Burnside uses the same brutal method throughout the film to indulge his bondage fetishes. Burnside attends church regularly. Famous Boy Scout commander. Like Dennis Rader.
Similar to Rader, Don is also seen in the movie disguising himself as a woman and taking photos of himself as a victim.
