Director Amber Sealey gets into the minds of both killer and inquisitor in this taut and disturbing true crime story.
Rookie FBI agent Bill Hagmaier (Elijah Wood) is part of the Behavioural Analysis Unit and volunteers to interview notorious serial killer Ted Bundy (Luke Kirby). Everyone scoffs at Bill as Bundy had previously refused to talk to anybody from the FBI. Slowly and wisely, he gains the trust of the murderer and begins to have a rapport with him. When the prison governor puts a date on Bundy’s execution with only seven days warning, Bill must face down the inmate to get his confessions of other slayings and even more disturbing testimony.
Based on the book written by the real-life Bill Hagmaier, No Man of God doesn’t sensationalise anything. The meetings between the agent and Bundy start in a Hannibal/Clarice manner, but as they progress, the dynamic is more Nixon vs Frost. Kirby’s portrayal of Bundy is superb; while charismatic, it’s clear that he is still very much a monster. Even when he appears to have a conscience about revealing details about a victim to someone he suspects might have known her, it’s utterly appalling: “I didn’t want to tell him I made love to his dead girlfriend before I cut her head clean off”.
Wood, despite his still youthful looks, is spellbinding as the God-fearing BAU agent. He’s not concerned about the details of Bundy’s case, but determined to get inside his head – to find out why he did the horrific things he did. The risk is there, too, that Bundy will get in Hagmaier’s head, which he certainly does. At one point, Bundy asks “Could you kill someone?” Being FBI, he’d technically be allowed to, but this is a question that will haunt Hagmaier later when he’s put in the position of deciding Bundy’s ultimate fate.
The screenplay – by regular Scott Derrickson cohort C. Robert Cargill, under the pseudonym of Kit Lesser – is tight and allows the performers to really embody the roles. Even though there are some important peripheral characters, this would make a perfect two-person stage play. We’d demand that Wood and Kirby reprised their roles, though.
NO MAN OF GOD is released digitally on September 16th and on DVD and Special Edition Blu-ray October 25th
