The Cold Light of Day

A very lightly disguised drama-doc on Cranley Gardens serial killer Denis Nielsen (here named Jordan March), who disposed of at least 13 young loners and losers, presumably based on Brian Masters' fine account in his book Killing for Company. March (Flag) looks like Roy Orbison wearing a Black-and-White Minstrels wig; the film has the lighting and look of an Andy Warhol home movie - heads cut off, lots of static shots of men on sofas - and a soundtrack composed of deep breathing, the pounding of a demolition ball, and church bells. Little light is thrown by March in the police interrogations on the reasons for his actions ('I didn't mean to. It just happened') or by the film itself. We see March as a boy, presumably traumatised by witnessing the death of his grandfather. Mostly we see strangulations, heads being boiled, viscera being scooped, hands being hacked. Risibility vies with banality; result, objectionability.