Undescribable Perfection

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This came across like a documentary made by very talented eighth graders. The only saving grace is the narrator which ultimately actually makes the whole thing even more cheesy with his delightful British accent which has no connection whatsoever with this American killer. The one thing I'm grateful for is the very minimal amount of bad reenactment acting- t although its limited presence is, indeed, terrible. The only reason I suffered through this is because I'm interested in serial killers and I have never heard of this particular one- it was seriously a chore to watch this whole thing. Additionally I think it should be noted that in my 48 years of movie watching I've never been compelled to write a bad review about anything before today. Let that alone be a testament to its quality

Often forgotten, mostly unknown H.H. Holmes was the first of note to string murders together just for the hell of it. Holmes was born Herman Mudgett in New Hampshire. He would use dozens of aliases during his life of crime. Holmes actually graduated from the Michigan Medical School in 1884, with the fascination of the human corpse. In the late 1800's, he personally designed a building, called The Castle, in Chicago with the sole purpose of having secret torture chambers, acid vats and small crematory in the basement. Most of his victims were unsuspecting visitors to the 1893 World's Fair. He would offer them rented rooms, where he would torture them. He would admit to killing over 200; but was never proved. This documentary at times will seem haphazard and a bit confusing as it rambles about the life of Holmes with use of still photos, newsreels and stock footage. Holmes was hanged in 1896. Written, directed and produced by John Borowski and narrated by Tony Jay.

Torture chambers, acid vats, greased chutes and gassing rooms were just some of the devices of death designed by the Torture Doctor, H.H. Holmes in his castle of horrors. Follows Holmes' entire life as a criminal mastermind.As a resident of Wisconsin, I have always found serial murder interesting. Yes, I do think there is a connection, because we have Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer in our state legends. And HH Holmes, being from Chicago, is one of those that captures my interest -- Chicago is the closest large city, and its history is almost local.This is a pretty good documentary. Of course, being a story that happened in the 1800s, you can only have so much video footage. But they flesh it out with photos, reenactments, and plenty of modern-day experts on Holmes and murder. I was pleased, and at just over an hour it gives you plenty of information without dragging on.

Uninspiring so-called "Documentary" which was patched up by a pseudo-filmmaker, complete with insipid, low budget "retellings" that don't excite or allow for any valid renderings of facts. It is amazing that this even attempted to analyze the "killer" so directly, who was portrayed erroneously in many of the segments. Historical accuracy is replaced by slander, innuendos, assumptions, half hearted guesses and mind readings. The "experts" resemble boisterous and lonely people who parade before the camera without any insight and pretend to know how 'murderers' operate. At best this is a laughable attempt at horror, at worst, a mockery of objective film-making. Everything about this production is tedious, including the t-shirt order address on the DVD.