The Alphabet Killer

Eliza Dushku strains to add more than tousled twitchiness to a Silence of the Lambs–like thriller (yes, they’re still making those) based on real-life events surrounding a serial-killing spree that plagued Rochester in the early 1970s. It’s not that Dushku can’t rise to the challenge of playing a suicidal cop wracked with guilt; she butches up considerably. But her commitment to the material is worthier than the cheesy ghost effects of decomposing children that the filmmakers felt the need to add.