The real, true to life serial killer, Andrei Chickatilo lived in The Soviet Union as a "party member" in the early 80's. The true story is much worse than is portrayed in Evilenko as well as Citizen X.
Evilenko (2004) - Its Kiev, Ukraine in 1984. Childless and satisfied in a sexless marriage due to his impotence, Andrej Romanovic Evilenko, the character who is based on the Russian serial killer, Andrei Chickatilo, gets fired for being a molester from the school he works at. He then begins to assault and slash women, boys, some young men, and girls and once dismembered--he eats them!
An investigator, who is a father and husband family man, Lesiev, is assigned the serial killer's case and it takes him eight long years to detect him and apprehend him. He is caught in spring 1992, and is given a trial, and of course, is sentenced to death. The real life investigator, Mikhail Fetisov on the case is depicted about to the right. Lesiev, who was the portrayal of the real life Fetisov does bear a striking resemblance to the detective I believe he supposed to be portraying in Evilenko.
Evilenko, which cast Malcom McDowell as a terrifying, sick, and cold, and outwardly cruel version of Mr. Chickatilo, takes an artistic spin and has a wonderfully chilling backdrop against the Old Soviet setting as well as a chilling reminding that Andrei was indeed a manipulative pedophile in addition to being a ruthless hunter of women and all humans.
Of course, Malcom McDowell is a fabulous character actor you might better know as Caligula or Alex in the Stanley Kubric cult classic, A Clockwork Orange. He nailed the character of Chickatilo, even walking in the same stride as well as capturing his facial expressions and the intensity behind his tortured eyes.
It also highlights the sexless marriage in which he was engaged and his dedicated wife, but does not tell us that the real Chickatilo was a father of two, a son and a daughter. Is said that the children he sired were created by flaccid masturbation and a subsequent semen coated finger bang process in which he engaged with his wife, Feodosia.
His marriage was arranged by his sister and her husband and in just a couple of weeks after meeting, the two married. Soon after there began an understanding that Andrei couldn't get and keep it up. He claims he was attracted to his wife and loved her so the sexless marriage wasn't for lack of trying.
Its not that he was just attracted to kids and adolescents, but was also attracted to women, but minus the violence, he couldn't get off and sometimes even then he couldn't get off so the act of killing and eating the flesh of those in which he felt a sexual attraction, was the only way to release his sexual tensions and reach some sort of mental climax. Indeed, sex and violence can be fused and can become a way to get sexual frustrations out of the way for sociopathic and antisocial serial killers, who have no other way to release their sexual energies.
McDowell does an excellent job portraying this character, who might I add, he looks nothing like. He gets all the proper mannerisms and even the way he walks down. I will include some footage of Mr. Chickatilo in this post so you can compare them. Andrei was sort of an awkward, stiff, almost effeminate fellow, but unattractive, and downright scary looking with blazing blue eyes and evil eyebrows to highlight the intensity behind the crazy look in his eyes.
Citizen X (1995) - Viktor Burakov (Steven Rea), who you might know better as Jim or Fergus (Fergie) in The Crying Game, is a investigator working on a serial killer's case in his district in the early 1980's Communist Soviet Union. However, his superiors do not concur with his ideas that a serial killer is at working, subscribing to the idea that serial killers are a Western phenomenon. Burakov is the only one astute enough to notice the pattern that is emerging with these increasingly large number of similar murders.
Rea portrays an IRA member in The Crying Game who falls for and hooks up with a transgendered woman, who was born with and still possesses male genitalia and throws up after she orally pleasures him. Then he feels bad and they are kinda an item in a sexless relationship. Hummm, bet that character can relate to Chickatilo, although he kills for a reason, because he's an assassin, I guess, yeah.
He finally figures out who the killer might be, but it set back when the "party" begins to protect its "citizen", the killer. Finally, of course, Communism dies and Burakov is appointed head of the investigation. He brings in a psychiatrist, who develops a profile of the serial killer. Burakov's superior contacts the FBI and learns that Burakov already a notable subject of interest in The United States due to his diligence and good intuitive detective work. Finally, Chikatilo is arrested. The psychiatrist meets with the detainee (Chickatilo), and through his discussion with him get a confession.
Based on an actual case, this film tells the story of Burakov, a Russian forensic pathologist assigned to locate the serial killer. His assignment, of course, takes a toll on his personal life as he stalks the killer for years even though the bureaucracy of the Soviet state gives him serious obstacles. Donald Sutherland won an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for his role as Colonel Fetisov.
I hate the plot from which this boring film stems. It drags on forever and feels as if its never going to end. The story is long, boring, and barely focuses on Chickatilo or his victims. Its emphasis is instead on the investigators obstacles in the case as well as the rise and fall of Communism in the Soviet Union. The setting was so tedious and boring that I lost interest in the film a half an hour in and had to actually watch it in breaks throughout the day so I could compare and contrast the two films, Evilenko and Citizen X in this review.
I also could not stand the fact that both Rea and Sutherland didn't use Russian or even general European movie accents. They used a tiny teeny weeny Russian accent in their own voices. Rea often spoke in a slight brogue and Sutherland, in his American accent with a slight hint of Slavic flair, not quite enough, in my opinion. I didn't believe they were in Russia, or even in Eastern Europe, or in the Communist Soviet Union. It could have been a bit more realistic. Even the same fake European general movie accent would have been great could the characters manner of speaking been cohesive, at the very least.
However, the story was more true-to-life as the details were mostly accurate. Chickatilo, when he was portrayed at all besides flashes of murders and him being pathetic at home being berated by his wife and all others, was more of a sympathetic character than he was portrayed as in Evilenko. I don't buy it. I think perhaps a blend of both characters might be more true in reality, but that's just my spin on things. I didn't know the guy. He was executed half way around the world when I was barely a high school student.
You can watch both films by clicking on the appropriate links below...
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