While this film did feel a bit like a lifetime movie, the actual storyline was really fascinating, and while it didn’t get too gory with the killings it certainly gave you enough to theorise on and think about the people in your own life and who they could really be.

Philip Markoff is a medical student that is top of his class and basically the perfect prep schoolboy that any parents would be glad for their daughter to date. In medical school he meets his girlfriend and soon to be future wife Megan McAllister and they start dating. Things move very quickly when they move in together and he proposes which she happily accepts because, as I said, this man comes across as the perfect guy…however he has a very dark secret.

Phil uses the website Craigslist and their erotic section to find women who offer massages, he then abuses these women by humiliating them by tying them up and stealing their underwear, which he keeps as trophies. He only becomes the Craigslist killer when one of these women tries to fight back and him having bought a gun, under a false name, shoots her to stop the fight. It’s clear that Philip doesn’t want to harm these women in terms of physical abuse but of course the emotional abuse is much worse and he could’ve easily continued his reign of terror if the stakes weren’t pushed up when he killed this woman.

It’s a really interesting story because his fiancee Megan actually watches news stories about this guy and her parents worry for her safety because it is in and around her town, yet she has no idea she is connected to the killer. It’s also really interesting to see the police side of things, how easily they can find him due to his IP address on his computer and the fact that there were CCTV in the hotels he went to and he always wore the same disguise. In all honesty he looked like Joe from You so clearly this is just the costume for any sort of offender.

I also found it really fascinating how Megan doesn’t believe them when they arrest him, she doesn’t see him as a killer because he is the perfect partner, he is doting and loving and ambitious and clearly cares about her a lot so how could someone so wonderful have such a dark side? And that’s what makes this case so chilling is we could have anyone in our lives that we think we know but really they could be hiding anything from us, and we could easily be affected by that.

I really enjoyed this film, it was quite cheap in some areas but the acting was good and the storyline was really fascinating, and while it wasn’t too gory or scary at any point it gave you a chill to think that someone in your life could be hiding such dark secrets and you could never know. In the movie we see him attack three different women however about 16 different trophies are found in his and his fiancee’s bed, which is terrifying to think as well, so it goes to show how much devastation this man bought on these women and how so many of them didn’t come forward because they didn’t want their family or friends to know what they did for a business.

I highly recommend this film if you enjoy true crime based films. It was really interesting to watch, it enlightened me to a case that I hadn’t heard of before, and while it wasn’t the best made film it was certainly enjoyable and kept you on your toes. I think the most horrific part of it is Phil killed himself before he was able to be tried for what he did to these women and that just shows how much of a coward he really was, and how much of a horrific human being he turned out to be.

What do you think of The Craigslist Killer?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Film and TV critic. View all posts by shonaharding