Bazaar Bizarre (2004)

Robert A "Bob" Berdella tortured sodomized photographed and murdered six men dismembered them and put their bagged remains out for trash pickup. Bob s secrets began to emerge the day before Easter 1988 when a bloody naked man escaped Berdella s home wearing only a dog collar. Berdella later confessed to killing six men - some by lethal injection some by suffocation. All suffered tremendous horrors as Berdella would torture them sexually with electric shocks inject them with animal tranquilizers put bleach in their eyes and inject drain cleaner in their voicebox to keep them from screaming. He documented these horrors in a detailed torture log and photographs. What police called torture Berdella called "my darkest fantasies becoming reality." Novelist James Ellroy (LA Confidential Black Dalia) presents this provocative film in a campy yet direct presentation guaranteed to make the viewer squirm.System Requirements:Running Time 89 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 825307915297 Manufacturer No: PH-91529 Product Description

Two stars deducted for the campy musical interludes

Were those really necessary? And the band wasn't even that good.

That said, I had barely heard of Bob Berdella until I found the book "Rites of Burial" a while back. It's one of better true crime books I've seen, and it never fails to amaze me how some of these people can do what they do under many people's noses, and nobody seems to suspect a thing.

Incidentally, there is little evidence that Berdella cannibalized his victims or served them at potlucks.

A Web search after reading that book revealed that Christopher Bryson, the escaped victim filmed here in silhouette, changed his name and moved to another part of the state. I don't know if his marriage survived this ordeal and its chaotic aftermath, but if you get this DVD, be sure to watch the filmmakers' comments. One of them said that Bryson had never told his children about the kidnapping and torture (he had one at the time, a son) and hadn't intended to, and when he was approached about making this film, he knew he would have to and when he did, "he felt like a tumor had been cut out of him."

The interviews with the key players in this story, and the narration by James Ellroy, are chilling. This film is unrated, but if it had a rating, the re-enactments with the carrot and cucumber would in themselves merit an NC-17.

One need not fear Berdella any more because he died in 1992. September 29, 2007

Documentary with reinactments!

I think your ordinary "scary" movie watcher might not like this. But as a serial killer buff i must say this was good! If you want to know about Bob Berdella and not just watch reinactments (like Bundy, Gacy and Dahmer) this is a good one! You get to see the blood in the reinactments but you also get to hear from an actual victim, see the place and the town and more about the one and only Bob Berdella who was one sick bastard ;) December 22, 2006

Both Campy and Gory, but interesting.

I think only those aware of the Berdella story will like this. It's part documentary, part campy reenactment. Berdella is interviewed, as are the detectives who worked the case and Chris Bryson--the young man who escaped and brought an end to Berdella's murderous reign.

And, to those who, like me, have a morbid fascination in wanting to see the Berdella photos (other than those displayed in the book written years ago), throughout the film, during the reenactment scenes of Berdella taking pictures of his drugged victims, shots of the actual victims are quickly flashed on the screen. December 13, 2006

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