When I watched "Through the Eyes of a Killer" for the first time, I didn't know what to expect. I just knew, RDA was playing the bad guy that time, nothing more.
So at first I didn't realize at all that Ray was a psychopath. I thought it was a little weird that he told Laurie he wouldn't let her ex-boyfriend hurt her, as he didn't even know her by then. And it was weird, when he grabbed her in her apartment and they had that rough sex and he told her afterwards, that he had thought that she had been a burglar.
But I think he began to love her, and she didn't. So he was really hurt, when he asked her, if she loved him at all and she hesitated to answer and made it clear by that, she didn't. She just liked the sexual relationship with him. So she had said that before to her girlfriend Alison, that she didn't think she could love him because he was not as educated as her.
But I was surprised by her reaction after Ray had slept with Alison. She was upset and broke up with him and her immediately. So, what did she expect? On the other hand she had been cheated so often by her boyfriends, maybe that made her react that way. And I had the impression, that Ray was really sorry for having sex with Alison.
After he finished her apartment he left her a gift, a pyramid with an eye and the note "I won't let you go". It was exactly the same note, Laurie's ex-boyfriend Jerry had left on the flowers for her, after she broke up with him. That was the first time I thought: "That could get creepy."
Great also the scene when the bloody hand grabbed for Laurie in the shower, after Alison had disappeared out of her apartment.
Also that her electronic devices in the apartment turned on and off on their own was creepy.
When Alison was found dead and Laurie realized that Ray must have killed her and she was told by the police, that Ray had been found dead too, the movie got creepier with every minute for me.
One of the most thrilling part for me was, when all the puzzle pieces fell into place: Ray's mother telling Laurie's friend Max that Ray never had been married (he told her at their first date he had lost his wife to cancer), that she had raised Ray alone without a father, when it became clear, that she had been an overprotective mother, when Max studied the blueprints of the apartment and realized that Ray wasn't dead (but the body found belonged to Laurie's ex-boyfriend who had threatened Ray) but living inside Laurie's apartment walls.
The end of course got me sitting on the edge of my couch when Laurie was trapped inside her apartment and Ray nearly killed her and in the very end he escaped....and the movie ends with you sitting there, trembling, and wondering, where did he go and will he strike again....?
I especially liked the way symbols were used in the film.
- the all seeing and knowing eye in the window (what had this eye seen before, as the previous owner had been a mass murderer who had buried his victims within the walls of the apartment), also a symbol for her being watched through the gaps of the walls
- the little pyramid with again the eye as Ray's gift and a symbol for him watching her
- the dollhouse at their first date showing perfect life scenes of a "normal" family, a life Ray never had experienced and maybe had wished for
- later on the now smashed dollhouse, after their relationship had been broken
I am also asking myself, did Ray plan the whole thing from the start? Or did he make that plan after she broke up with him? If not, why did he lie to her about a wife he never had? Did he get the idea with the doubled walls because of the old newspaper article about the "history" of her apartment (which Max found when he took the blueprints)? Why had he the article in the first place? That is also a reason, why I like the film....it got me on the hook right away and always leaves me thinking about the character of Ray...
I even bought a book with the short story "The Master Builder" the movie is based on. And if you think the movie is creepy.....whoa....read the short story!
So, I like the movie very much, because it's absolutely thrilling.
RDA's performance is great and very convincing.
And like all of you, I won't complain about the fact, that he shows much skin there, too.
Anja