Tony (Peter Ferdinando) is a recluse loner that spends his days trying to blend into the background. Striking up conversations with random people, Tony seems to be a shy man but in reality he’s a serial killer. Luring men back to his flat and picking on unsuspecting people, Tony murders without any hint of remorse. When a young boy goes missing, Tony finds himself being harassed by the boy’s father who is convinced that it is Tony that has abducted him.
Tony: London Serial Killer is an odd, and fairly short, movie. Setting a slow pace from the beginning, the movie never really breaks out into a coherent or compelling story instead just moving from one murder to the next. There’s no real motivation for why Tony is committing these crimes and the exploration of the character is surface deep. We never get inside Tony’s head or come to understand why he’s acting the way he does.
What should be an unsettling and harrowing movie soon descends into something a little silly and unbelievable. Tony is obviously a very troubled man yet the characters in the movie seem to warm to him quickly and often end up back at his flat. You have to wonder how realistic this really is particularly when one character, a woman with two children, invites Tony to join her family for dinner after he gives her a plaster. Something about the whole movie just doesn’t sit right with us and unfortunately it spoiled our enjoyment of it.
One thing that must be commended is the performance of Peter Ferdinando as Tony. He is superb in the title role and he really unsettles you with his nervous screen presence. Unfortunately the character is drastically underwritten so Ferdinando doesn’t get the opportunity to really dig into Tony’s psyche but he puts in a memorable performance none-the-less.
Special features on the DVD release include two short films Tony (which the film is based on) and Mug.
Tony: London Serial Killer is too far fetched to be remotely affecting. The gratuitous shots of remains and dead bodies don’t shock but they do leave you feeling a little bit nauseous. This could have been a solid British movie but instead it’s an underwhelming affair that doesn’t quite know how to set the tone – in fact it seems just as confused as Tony himself.
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