The Clovehitch Killer [Movie Review]

The Clovehitch Killer [Movie Review] | I went into the movie on a TikTok recommendation that called it underrated. 

With no expectations at all, I simply let myself free-dive into the movie.

SYNOPSIS

The Clovehitch Killer (2018) Trivia

• Starring: Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis & Madisen Beaty
• Director: Duncan Skiles
• Producer: Andrew Kortschak, Cody Ryder & Walter Kortschak
• Production Company: End Cue

• Distributed by: IFC Midnight
• Release date: November 16, 2018
• Running time: 110 minutes
• Rating: MA
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• IMDb: 6.5/ 10
• Tomatometer: 79%
• Metascore: 59%
• The film is inspired by Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, a churchgoing family man who hid his murderous secrets. 
• The title, referencing a clove hitch knot used in scouting, ties Tyler’s Boy Scout background to the killer’s methods, linking innocence to violence.  
• Tyler’s final act is deliberately ambiguous, leaving viewers to wonder if he breaks the cycle or continues it.

Tyler Burnside is the model boy scout, raised in a home where faith, family values and community reputation are treated as sacred currencies. He lives by the rules, believes in order and trusts the adults who shape his world. But his small Kentucky town still exists under the long shadow of the Clovehitch Killer, a serial murderer who vanished a decade earlier after binding and strangling ten women. The town moved on. The fear never really did.

Tyler’s carefully ordered life begins to fracture the night he borrows his father’s truck and discovers a disturbing bondage photograph hidden between the seats. When the image circulates among teens from his church and scout troop, Tyler is quickly branded a pervert and pushed to the margins. The judgment is harsh and familiar. Yet the real horror begins when suspicion turns inward. This doesn’t feel like a teenage prank or a tasteless joke. It feels older, colder and far too close to home.

His father, Don, is everything Tyler has been taught to admire: a devoted husband, a respected community leader and a moral compass for others. But admiration curdles into dread when Tyler breaks into Don’s private shed and uncovers a hidden compartment filled with bondage magazines and a Polaroid of a beaten, bound woman. What begins as curiosity spirals into something far darker.

Desperate for answers, Tyler turns to Kassi, a social outcast and amateur historian obsessed with the Clovehitch case. Together, they form an uneasy alliance built on suspicion and fear. For Kassi, this isn’t morbid curiosity. It’s personal. Her mother was one of the forgotten victims, a name that never made headlines.

From there, the discoveries escalate with chilling precision: blueprints for a hidden dungeon, driver’s licenses belonging to known Clovehitch victims and evidence that refuses to stay buried.

When confronted, Don denies ownership of the stash, claiming it belonged to his now sickly brother. It’s an explanation that seems to offer relief, even as it raises more questions than it answers.

Is that the whole truth or is there more to the story?

MY REVIEW

What I Like:  

• The movie plays well with a picture-perfect family that doesn't necessarily the reality. Something else might be brewing underneath, a social issue that becomes common nowadays.  
• Beautiful performance by the cast.

What I Don't Like:

• Though we know that the pictures belong to his father, it would've made a better twist if somehow the uncle is also involved and there's a trauma that is haunting his father.    

Will I Watch It Again: I don't mind watching it again.

Overall: 4.3/ 5.0

The pictures are taken from multiple sources on the Internet. Thank you.

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