2018's The Clovehitch Killer is a viscerally disturbing, slow-burn thriller, and a big part of what makes it so horrifying is that it's based on the true story of the BTK Killer. The film, which is new to Netflix this month, follows Tyler Burnside (Charlie Plummer) as he recounts events during his teen years where a serial killer was terrorizing his local area. As nearby victims are taken out one by one, he never paid much attention. But when he starts finding clues pointing at his father, Don (Dylan McDermott), being the local "Clovehitch Killer" (he leaves behind ropes tied in clovehitch knots as a calling card), the young man seeks out the truth.
The film doesn't take long to divulge that Don Burnside is, in fact, the murderer who has been breaking into women's homes, binding, torturing, and finally strangling them. The voyeuristic glimpse into his life is utterly unnerving, in the same emotional and thematic realm as Jamie Dornan's portrayal of a sexual sadist on The Fall. He is shown stalking a victim that he notices at the supermarket, following her home, and preparing his entry point for the near future. And he's eventually depicted trying to inflict his signature killing ritual on her, though he's ultimately thwarted. It's eerily dark watching Burnside internally grapple with his compulsion to kill again (he had taken a break for years) and eventually succumb to it. Don's detached, sociopathic approach to all of this, from doing recon to gathering supplies such as rope and plastic bags, is uncomfortably well-acted and believable.
For those who are intrigued by serial killers, or even just enjoy media in the vein of Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, or Netflix's Mindhunter, it's easy to see the glaring similarities between the fictional Clovehitch Killer and the real-life "BTK Killer," Dennis Rader. From the 1970s all the way until the '90s, the serial murderer (whose name was an acronym for his M.O.: bind, torture, kill) terrorized Wichita and Park City, Kansas. Burnside uses the same sadistic routine in the film and has an obsession with sexual fantasies regarding bondage. Burnside is also a man of faith, routinely attending his local church, and he's a well-known Boy Scout leader. The same was also true for Dennis Rader.
Other similarities abound. As previously mentioned, Burnside also waits years before killing again. Rader did the same, waiting eight years to kill again after a murder he committed in 1977. In The Clovehitch Killer, Burnside also collects his victims' driver's licenses as trophies (a horrifying, yet common, serial killer behavior), along with snapshots he takes of them while bound. In 2004, Rader sent a reporter a copy of a victim's ID, along with a photograph of her body. In addition, in the film, Tyler's friend Kassi recalls a memory of when her mother was murdered by the Clovehitch Killer; she says the man locked her in the bathroom before strangling her mother. Rader did the same thing to three children of one of his victims in 1977. And another notable Rader similarity is that Burnside is shown dressing in drag and staging self-taken photos of himself while posing as his female victims during periods without killing.
There's a slew of connections that make it clear that Rader heavily influenced The Clovehitch Killer's antagonist. It was a good inspiration for a serial killer movie, especially as, aside from season 2 of Mindhunter, the idea of the BTK Killer hasn't been widely portrayed in TV or film aside from documentaries and having certain traits repackaged for fictional characters. Luckily, Rader was arrested in 2005 after sealing his own fate by contacting reporters; it seems he missed getting attention.