The Big Picture

• The Clovehitch Killer is an underrated movie that explores the chilling reality of a serial killer who hides in plain sight within a close-knit community.
• The movie draws inspiration from the real-life BTK Killer, known for his ritualistic killings and taunting of the police and media.
• Both the movie and the real-life case serve as a reminder that we can never truly know what someone is capable of, even those closest to us.

Art often imitates real life, and in the case of horror movies, a terrifying way to make that statement true is to make a movie based on a real-life serial killer. Movies like Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and My Friend Dahmer are some of the popular adaptations of real-life killings in true crime history. But one adaptation that tends to be overlooked is The Clovehitch Killer.

Released in 2018, The Clovehitch Killer follows a serial killer who terrorized his Kentucky community but has been lying low for over ten years. That is until his son starts to uncover his deepest secrets. Dylan McDermott stars as Don Burnside, the doting father, community leader, and devout Christian who seems like the perfect family man. The community he lives in is still reeling from the unsolved murders of 10 women that happened a decade ago. But when Don's son, Tyler (Charlie Plummer), stumbles upon some incredibly disturbing photos that his father has hidden, he starts to wonder if his father is the Clovehitch killer.

What Is the True Story Behind 'The Clovehitch Killer'?

Inspirations for The Clovehitch Killer, while not a direct retelling, were taken from the BTK (Bind, Torture Kill) Killer. The director, Duncan Skiles, did extensive research on BTK, and screenwriter Christopher Ford put together the script with heavy references to him. Dennis Rader is the serial killer known as BTK, who killed ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. He was known to be quite arrogant and taunting and frequently sent the police and various media outlets letters explaining his murders in detail. The first clue he left for the police was inside an engineering book at the public library. He then called the local paper to inform them where they could find the confession. In this first letter, he gave himself the name BTK, as he liked to torture and murder his victims with the method of binding, torturing, and then killing them.

What Are the Similarities Between BTK and Clovehitch?

One of the main similarities between the BTK killer and the Clovehitch killer is the ritualistic way that they kill their victims. Like BTK, Clovehitch binds and tortures ten victims, all women, before killing them. They both derive a sexual type of satisfaction from their kills, taking pictures or mementos of each of them. In addition to that, both killers stalk their victims and spy on them to create the perfect plan for how to abduct and kill them. Clovehitch and BTK both take over a decade-long break from torturing and killing and are eventually found out for their grisly crimes.

BTK's first kill happened in January 1974 when he strangled four members of a Kansas family in their own home. Shortly after that, in April, he hid in a woman's apartment and stabbed and strangled her as she returned home. After these first two events, BTK continued his hot streak in the late 1970s, killing two more women between 1977 and 1979. Taking a brief hiatus until 1985, BTK broke it and killed three more women, his final victim falling in 1991. In 2005, an article was written for the 30th anniversary of his first murders that alluded to the killer either dying or being in prison for another crime. Being rather arrogant and proud of his skills, BTK responded to the article by sending in his last victim's driver's license and other souvenirs in cereal boxes to the police for a year. One of those pieces of evidence was a floppy disk that was traced back to his church and contained pieces of DNA that they were able to match from his first murder scene. Dennis Rader was officially named BTK and was convicted of 10 counts of first-degree murder. In The Clovehitch Killer, certain similarities, such as Clovehitch keeping driver's licenses as keepsakes and killing a woman while her daughter was locked in the bathroom to hear it, are direct parallels to what BTK did to certain victims as well.

Both BTK and Clovehitch Hid in Plain Sight

Another similarity between Clovehitch and BTK is that both were excellent community leaders, devout Christians, and appeared to be grade-A parents. BTK was incredibly involved in the church in his community and was a Boy Scout leader, as was Don Burnside when he wasn't acting out his demented fantasies. When BTK was convicted, his family was shocked to learn that the supportive, ever-present family man they had in their minds was actually a cold-blooded murderer. His daughter, in particular, had taken an interest in the case in 2005, trying to make sense of what had haunted her town for decades. Little did she know that her DNA would be used to capture the killer.

Nine months after she started investigating the case, an FBI agent showed up at her door to let her know there was a DNA match between her and DNA left on the floppy disk mentioned previously. Even though there were reasons that led his family to question him, his daughter was still in disbelief because he was a seemingly good guy. The one stark difference between the real-life murders and the movie is the ending and how the serial killer ultimately ended up. In real life, Dennis Rader was convicted to 175 years in prison and only avoided the death penalty because Kansas did not have it at the time he committed the murders. In Hollywood, we turn up the drama a bit. At the end of the movie, Burnside's son, Tyler, ends up pointing a gun at his father and presumably pulling the trigger before the film's end credits.

Why Is BTK in the News Again?

In August 2023, Rader made headlines again, this time from behind bars. The Osage County Sheriff's Department confirmed that they were investigating BTK as the prime suspect in the disappearance of a teenager in 1976 and a few other unsolved crimes in the Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri areas. Like his old MO, Rader wrote to law enforcement about his feelings regarding being named a suspect. Rader claims he had nothing to do with that disappearance and doesn't understand why the Sheriff has beef with him. It is still unclear if he had anything to do with the teenager's disappearance, but maybe now is the right time to watch or re-watch The Clovehitch Killer.

The chilling realization of both the movie and the real-life BTK killings is that both existed right under everyone's noses. They could mask their thoughts and blend in with their peers and community members. Cases like that cause everyone to look sideways at their family members and neighbors because we never truly know what is happening in another person's mind. The Clovehitch Killer is a vastly underrated movie, and Dylan McDermott gives an incredibly chilling performance as Clovehitch and his sociopathic ways.

The Clovehitch Killer is streaming on Hulu in the U.S.

Watch on Hulu