Rating: 
Summary: Creepy and beautifully filmed
Review: Without ever hard-selling the point, this film juxtaposes one system of state-sanctioned murder (U.S. death penalty) with another (Nazi-era Holocaust). This pairing is almost beside the point, though, as the filmmaker brings us down into the life of Fred Leuchter, a man who seems malleable and dim-witted on one level, although perhaps far smarter than he lets on. Leuchter at times seems merely a simple, ultimately compassionate individual (he believes in the death penalty but wants to make it dignified and humane); at other times the glint in his eye hints at a far different character and motivation.Altogether "Mr. Death" is a fascinating study of a man whose macabre career notwithstanding comes across as more sympathetic than one might expect given the subject matter. Occasionally, I felt as if Leuchter were Chance Gardner in "Being There," or perhaps Zelig from the Woody Allen film of the same name: essentially a guiless person who wants to belong. That may, in fact, be rather too charitable in the case of Leuchter, though one of the movie's charms is that it leaves possible this ambiguity even as the credits roll. Some wonderful editing and camerawork throughout. Intoxicating and creepy--a film that's hard to turn away from.
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