An Amish Murder (2013) Neve Campbell, Noam Jenkins, Jilon VanOver, Christian Campbell, Irone Singleton, Alec McClure, Linda Kash, Mary Krohnert, C. Thomas Howell Movie Review

An Amish Murder (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Neve Campbell in An Amish Murder (2013)

A Murder in Amish Country

Katie Burkholder (Neve Campbell - Scream 4) grew up in the Amish community but left following a series of brutal murders at the hands of a serial killer, as she was lucky enough to survive an attack but felt like she was no longer accepted as part of the community following it. Having become a cop in the big city she finds herself back at Painters Mill, Ohio where she has been given the job of Chief of Police and accepting that whilst she regularly sees her family they refuse to acknowledge her. But when a body of an Amish girl is found murdered with roman numerals carved in to her skin Katie fears either the serial killer has returned or they have a copycat killer on their hands. To make matters worse she is not only getting pressure from the mayor but finds herself having to work with profiler John Tomasetti (Noam Jenkins - The House Next Door). But does Katie know something which could come back to her haunt her?

"An Amish Murder" is one of those movies which after about the first 30 minutes I started again for the simple reason I had found myself not paying any attention to it, distracted by a lot of meaningless thoughts. Thing is that whilst I tried to stay focussed and interested in the unfolding serial killer storyline in this made for TV movie I found my thoughts drifting again when I started over. The issue certainly isn't to do with the storyline of "An Amish Murder" as the set up is pretty decent with this combination of a former resident of an Amish community, who has been ostracized since she left, finding things complicated when she has to investigate a murder involving an Amish girl. Add on top of that the serial killer element and the fact she escaped a serial killer years earlier makes for a nice mystery especially as we get hints to the fact that Kate knows who the killer is, or at least was. And to be honest, when the reveal comes as to who the killer is it is a pretty decent one.

The trouble with "An Amish Murder" is that it ends up an incredibly slow movie which lacks the sort of atmosphere, tension and energy which commands your attention, which is why I frequently found my attention drifting. And it is a shame as the storyline is strong and the acting is solid with Neve Campbell delivering a controlled performance as Katie, slowly allowing her past to be revealed and how it has affected her. At the same time Noam Jenkins does an equally nice job of playing Tomasetti with his own set of issues, he suffers from PTSD, not allowing them to dominate his performance but with an aspect of their always being some thing not quite right with him.

What this all boils down to is that "An Amish Murder" is a decent made for TV thriller with nice performances and a nice storyline. But it is a movie which is let down by its slow nature which causes it to have spells where it feels like nothing is happening other than slowly playing scenes which draw it out.


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