Tom Joad here with a quick update from SXSW... The festival is already half over and I'm catching up on all my reviews. Here is the first of MANY reviews to come, including exclusive interviews with Ginger Lynn Allen and William Peter Blatty!!! But for now, here we go with a great little documentary on a subject that I find fascinating: serial killers and true crime.

COLLECTORS

One of the most unsettling and subtle documentaries I've seen. You'll be left both enlightened by the macabre world of these collectors as well as mortified by their audacity. Beginning with a tingling sensation at the base of your spine that slowly creeps through you, this one will resonate with you for days afterward.

Rick Staton, a Baton Rouge mortician, has what many believe to be a very tasteless hobby. Rick is a collector of serial killer and mass murderer memorabilia and relics. He has it all: from personalized artwork from John Wayne Gacy, to brick chips taken from the Tate/Polanksi home, to artwork painted by Houston's most notorious serial killer: Elmer Wayne Henley. Staton has increased his collection over the years in part by writing to many "celebrity" murderers on death row and encouraging him to pick up a pencil or a brush and some paints and begin experimenting. Although one of his biggest regrets is that he was in the early stages of convincing Jeffrey Dahmer to write just before he was murdered in prison. He feels that Dahmer's work could be as popular as those of John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez or Charlie Manson.

We're introduced to the artwork of Henley as we discover the preparations for a Elmer Wayne Henley art exhibit to be held in Houston. As we journey with Staton and fellow collector Tobias Allen to the show, director Julian P. Hobbs begins expertly cutting his footage back and forth between Staton and Allen and the grieving families of Henley's victims who are protesting the art show. Here, Hobbs begins to illustrate the dichotomy that exists between life and art - between serial killers and those who seek to diefy them.

Staton and Allen stop along the way, visiting the site where Henley deposited his 27 young male victims. They comment on how the site has been changed since their last visit, they gather gravel from the ground and leave some graffiti on one of the buildings. As they chuckle, laugh and walk away, we cut to one of the victim's protesting parents who tell us how Elmer Wayne Henley handcuffed their son to a bed, broke his ribs, raped him, cut off his fingers, and burned him. The editing is fantastic.

The comparison between the two collectors also becomes more apparent in a scene where Allen is explaining the rules the serial killer boardgame he invented. Staton, a generation older than Allen has had a lifetime of first hand experience with death during his daily job of embalming the deceased - Allen however, has none and seems much more naïve when it comes to first-hand death. His morbid curiosity reeks of one who doesn't realize the full weight of his actions and obsessions. His game, in which the players assume a fictitious serial killer, roll dice, draw cards and circle the board in an effort to murder more people than their opponent. Similar to Monopoly, the player choose from small characters such as a man digging a grave, and the victim trophy game pieces are little pink fetuses that represent the lives successfully taken by a player. Even Staton shakes his head with a disbelieving chuckle as he refers to the game as sick.

Stopping off in California on their road trip, they visit the Tate/Polanski home where Manson made history. After lying about the floor in the same places and positions the deceased were found in, they made their way through the house (which was apparently when Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was recording The Downward Spiral, we never see him, but his keyboards litter the place!) and chipped off some brick pieces for a keepsake.

Upon arriving at the art exhibit, we meet a young girl who purchased an oil painting of Henley's that depicts a thunderstorm. She launches a five-minute spiel on how she interprets the art before telling us how happy she is that it matches her apartment scheme perfectly. We also meet a man who is upset with the fact that this murderer is having an art show. He talks with Staton and Allen for a time about how holding this exhibit is an abortion of justice. Soon after, he purchases a $600 pencil sketch of a nude girl (that looks an awful lot like a boy) and burns it in the street so that "no pervert can enjoy it". Marching off, seemingly vindicated, we watch Allen drop to a knee and immediately begin scraping the ashes into an envelope to add to the collection.

Amazing parallels throughout, this is an incredibly gripping and eerie documentary that should not be missed!

Tom Joad signing off...