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Like A Real-Life Horror Movie
Thursday, October 24, 2002
By Kevin Canfield & Tara Weiss
Courant Staff Writers

"People are used to watching movies and television, and in an hour and a half people are caught," added Bernero, a former Chicago police officer. "We did an episode in our second season about a sniper shooting at police officers and we caught him in that hour. They may be thinking if [TV cops] can do it in 45 minutes, why can't all of the Virginia and Maryland police solve this?"

The Washington-area sniper is crafting a script so darkly spectacular that it seems few Americans can look away. Cable news channels have forsaken other stories, and people who never watch television before primetime are tuning in to Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose's daily press conferences.

With a growing list of victims, an eerie cache of clues, and cops talking through TV cameras to a psychotic marksman, it has all the trappings of a terrifying Hitchcock movie. The difference here is that this film has lasted all day, every day for three weeks.

"This is playing out like a horror movie -- or like a mini-series, with a new chapter airing nearly every day, all of it `written' by this killer," said Richard Roeper, a film critic and co-host of "Ebert & Roeper." "It's almost like a gruesome reality series."

Members of the electronic media have, once again, been criticized for covering the crimes as they would a sporting event, but this much is clear: Americans are fixated on this story, and the media are giving viewers and readers what they appear to be asking for.
(More: ctnow.com News Source)
2002 © The Hartford Courant.

Dan