Cinema: Boy Meets Bogeyman

The Fool Killer is a “big tall feller” who carries a chopper for chopping fools. His work is cut out for him in this somewhat foolish mystery thriller based on a novel by Helen Eustis.

Set in the period after the Civil War, the plot tells of a twelve-year-old runaway (Edward Albert, son of Eddie) who recalls the nightmarish myth of the Fool Killer when he falls in with a former soldier (Tony Perkins) suffering from amnesia and other psychic ills. After the ax murder of a revivalist preacher, Perkins disappears, but returns unexpectedly once the boy has settled down with a childless couple (Dana Elcar, Salome Jens). The inevitable night of terror holds few surprises, though it does set pulses pounding on behalf of Actress Jens, who gives a dull role simple warmth.

Fool Killer falters most when Director Servando Gonzalez strives too restlessly for effects—bird’s-eye views, fish’s-eye views, and pool reflections. Young Albert is made a paper-thin storybook hero while Perkins, with no Hitchcock to guide him, mopes through his small starring role with an air of boyish menace that might easily be mistaken for sulking. Both actors seem to have been set adrift in a poetic but implausible neverland where Tom Sawyer tangles tales with Psycho.