Konterr Brilliant and touching

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

bwcaudill-28490 Albert Fish's story is one of the most fascinating and shocking American tales of the 20th century. If you haven't heard of him or seen this film, feel free to take the time to Google his name and get some backstory.If you've already done that, then this film isn't really going to tell you anything new. "Albert Fish", the film, offers a confusingly paced story told through cheaply produced reenactments, with input from subjects without any real qualifications to be exploring the mind of a serial killer, sexual predator, and psychopath.The film opens with the story of the Grace Budd murder, including a voice-over (portraying Fish) reading the infamous letter. During which we hear melodramatic sound effects including a second voice-over (portraying Budd) squealing "I'll tell Momma!" with a tone so campy I literally started laughing out loud. It's then explained how Westchester Police used the letter to finally arrest Fish. So right off the bat the most horrific and compelling chapter of Fish's disturbing life is laid out to us, removing all drama it could've held later.But that's OK. This film isn't interested in drama. It's interested in exploring Fish's religious psychosis without any real narrative to follow. And it insists on laying out the depth of Fish's psychosis not through psychoanalyses, but through lots of projection from its interviewees and even more cheaply made dramatizations portraying what the film insists are the visions Fish had. Fish may very well have had some extreme religious psychosis, but the film makes little effort to produce the evidence of this.It also provides little background of Fish himself. Mentioned sporadically throughout the film are anecdotes about his childhood and adult life, but rarely is this explained in any detail or with any connection to a narrative. The film notes his married life, fatherhood, and abandonment by his wife with little interest in the psychological impact any of these aspects had.Many reviews have claimed Joe Coleman's inclusion in the film was superfluous, but I disagree. Coleman was the perfect allegory for what the film was trying to accomplish: heavy projection in lieu of evidence or thoughtful examination. Coleman's credentials hardly make him an authority on the subject of serial killers. Such as they are, his greatest attributes seem to be having a creepy collection of souvenirs and apparently stealing the Grace Budd letter from the police. Unable to speak authoritatively on Fish, he instead openly uses his own religious background to speculate greatly on the motives for Fish's crimes. Eventually he claims that he (Coleman) personally was meant to own the letter.If you are hoping to learn anything new about Albert Fish, head to the library, because you won't find it here. It you'd like to literally watch paint dry (there's a reenactment in the film which gives us this opportunity) feel free to watch this film.

Coventry Strong stomachs and nerves of steel are required in order to sit through this "shockomentary" revolving on the crimes and confessions of Albert Fish; sadomasochist, cannibal and undoubtedly the most perverted serial child-killer in the history of the United States. The documentary opens with the extended analysis of the murder of young Grace Budd; the crime that eventually – six years after it was committed – resulted in his arrest. The notorious letter Fish sent to the girl's mother alone, explaining in great detail what he had done to her, makes you sick with disgust and automatically causes you to contemplate how a human being can possibly act like such a cruel and relentless beast. Subsequently, Fish's childhood and the development of his bizarrely perverted sexual tendencies (physical suffering, morbid religious aspects and the interest in young boys) get further explored and the life-story of the monster personified becomes more incredible and astounding with each minute. Quotes like "I always had the desire to inflict pain on others … and I always desired others to inflict pain on me" suitably draw an image of this deranged monster. If this were a fictional horror movie character nobody would ever take it seriously, that's for sure. The documentary is professionally made, with authentic images of New York during the depression era of the 1930's being altered with scenes with actors, atmospheric music and sinister voiceovers and nightmarish collages of morbid religious tableaux. The subject matter is truly engrossing and repugnant, yet fascinating to behold if you are interested in the darkest sides of the human mind. My sole complaint is one that I read in some of the other reviews already. I was hoping to get to known some new and still unknown little facts about the life and crimes of Albert Fish, but the documentary features absolutely no "scoops" or additional background.

real_hiflyer I could have accepted a lot of the 'artistic license' used in this film if it were claiming to be a movie based on fact, rather than presenting itself as a documentary. A previous comment does a good job of pointing out the errors in the added period footage.It was a good introduction into a serial murderer I'd never heard of. It was also a disgusting overly dramatized exercise in attempting to concentrate more on the gross out factor than reporting the facts. Not content to describe once how good certain parts of a child's body were when roasted and eaten, it describes the heinous deeds in fact and again in a first person voice-over narrated by an actor playing Albert Fish.For shock affect it delved into ramming the details of his crimes down the throat of the viewer, again and again. At the expense of his victims and their families the film wallows in filth and was offensive in the extreme because of it. Either we're too stupid to digest the horror of his acts, or sales were forefront and above any other consideration the film makers claim.It's not a documentary. A documentary informs us of real events without trying to sicken people with fictitious scenes added catering to the director's opinion of what took place. That's fiction. It's not a movie, in a movie you can accept that 'based on' gives the director license to add whatever he thinks will sell. It is a sick perverted film on a sick perverted killer but that not being enough, it approaches the same type of sick twisted deeds on film, that Fish did in person. In this, the film makers succeed in showing their perverted intention on wringing out every last drop of human suffering in their own race for sales.Joe Coleman, obviously delighted to lay claim to notoriety by surrounding himself with the artifacts of the infamous and psychotic members of our society, sits smugly as he tells us he's thrilled to have the original letter sent to one victim's family, describing what Fish did to their child. How he was 'meant' to have it. Most serial murderers take trophies and this particular derelict of humanity, Coleman, does the same here, living with the material surrounding the worst part of themselves humanity has to offer. If any proof was needed for what I'm saying here, it's in the repeated interviews with this piece of crap. His sole participation in this film should have been only in examining this letter. Instead we're treated to repeated interview segments with no other reason than to try and help sell this presentation of crap.These flaws ruin what could have been a remarkable recounting of Fish's deeds. The makers of this prostituted themselves for sales and in doing so, reflect a watered down mirror of the same sort of sickness Fish succumbed to. It's a perverted reporting of a perverted person and because of this they have more in common with this man than they may want to realize.

alanmora This is a brilliantly filmed documentary on one of America's most notorious serial killers, Albert Fish. The film contains intricately detailed and accurate accounts of the crimes and does not shy away from the sheer brutality of it's subject matter during the re-enactment segments either. The musical score adds to the creepiness of this bone chilling account of a man who is undoubtedly the worst criminal of the twentieth century! As the film reveals, there is no known perversion that this creepy old man did not practice and practice frequently on both himself and others. He was a cannibal, a pedophile, a necrophile, a masochist and a sadist and he also practiced numerous other unspeakable perversions! Known to have murdered several children (the actual count of which were lost in his foggy memory) and most noted for having inserted dozens of needles into his own body, many of which were discovered after his death rusted and corroded (an indication that they had been there for YEARS) and dangerously close to vital organs. The actor who portrays the "Moon Maniac" in this film bears an utterly chilling resemblance to the actual perpetrator and this aspect only adds to the value of this film. The DVD release boasts of additional footage and documentaries on the case and the film itself. True crime buffs and horror movie fans alike will thrill to the delight of this devilishly gruesome little documentary!