Murderer muse

"I look at him as an evil genius. He was different than the normal run-of-the-mill serial killer. He was someone that blended in seamlessly in society. He had three wives at the same time, none of whom were aware about it. He had businesses. He ran insurance scams. He was a highly intelligent person to have these things going on at the same time," says filmmaker John Borowski, of his documentary subject, H.H. Holmes, known by some as America's first serial killer. (He was the first killer to be termed 'multimurderer' by the Chicago Tribune when they covered his trial in 1895, Borowski says.) The 64-minute film by the Columbia College graduate, to be screened Tuesday at the Chicago Community Cinema event that takes place monthly at Excalibur, attempts to piece together a story of the sociopath who rented out a building, during the 1893 World's Fair, where he murdered and tortured his tenants. Holmes has been a popular serial killer as of late. Erik Larson's "Devil and the White City" came out last February, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio are each producing their own versions, and Borowski's film is pending distribution. "I guess we try and figure out in our minds how people like him--how can Hitler--how can these people do what they do and have no conscience about it? That was what was scary about Holmes. Nothing made him waver."

Nightmare on Marcey Street

Forget traditional haunted houses with actors wearing sheets over the head and sick-looking pancake makeup. Collaboraction's "Suffering City: The Warehouse of Trapped Souls" is what artistic director Anthony Moseley's calling a "theatrical interactive tour of purgatory... loosely inspired by Dante's 'Inferno'--but very loosely." The haunted house in the 162,000-square-foot warehouse space on Marcey Street in Lincoln Park will include a Western-themed kid's "Scary Town." Since the company will also use the space for their Sketchbook festival in November, the project represents the culmination of the company's mission statement, says Moseley. "It's a double whammy, because not only do we get the place for free for Sketchbook, but we're also getting basically funded to produce this project that's kind of our little dream evolution as a place where theater and parties and audience-based experiences can live together."

(2003-10-02)

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