If explorations of some of the darker criminal tales of our times are your thing, there's a doozy coming our way. While the likes of Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story have been justly criticised for centring the acts of murder, Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy promises to take a very different tack.
Instead of focusing on the killings or the violence, the show has been praised for exploring the failures that allowed prolific serial killer Gacy to get away with his crimes for so long, and centres the boys who were his victims.
"One of the first things [showrunner Patrick Macmanus] told me," actor Michael Chernus told The Hollywood Reporter, "was that there wouldn’t be any graphic violence onscreen or any murder shown." This is a very different beast to the Ryan Murphy school of Dahmer and The Ed Gein Story.
There are lots of reasons to be excited about this upcoming ITV show, so let's dive in.
Who was John Wayne Gacy?
One of the 20th century's most notorious serial killers, he had, along with Ed Gein, perhaps the biggest cultural impact of any other sexual murderer, because of the shocking and stark contrast between his public and private lives.
In the 1970s Gacy was a popular and successful businessman, owner of a painting and decorating firm and supervisor for a shopfitting company. He was a member of a well-known US charitable organisation called the Loyal Order of Moose, and performed at hospitals as a children's entertainer – specifically as a clown.
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It's no exaggeration to say his exposure as a serial predator turbo-charged the widespread fear of clowns and their incorporation into the horror-movie lexicon, even though that aspect was merely part of the way he disguised himself as a normal human being and – despite "killer clown" tabloid coverage of the time suggesting otherwise – was unrelated to his acts of violence and depravity.
Gacy raped and murdered over thirty teenage boys and young men, bringing them back to his house under one pretext or another and torturing them before strangling them to death and throwing the bodies off bridges or hiding them in the crawl space under his house.
Why we're excited about Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy
Reason one: the US reviews from its original broadcast are almost uniformly positive – and from reputable sources too. Variety called it a "tasteful, considered take on the sensationalised serial killer", while The Hollywood Reporter said it's a "serial killer drama in which the humanity of the victims, the challenges for law enforcement and the unfolding of a complex thesis on the genre are given equal — and eventually more than equal — time to the carnage."
Reason two: following those publications' points, Devil in Disguise has clearly learned the lessons of more sensationalist dramatisations and follows through on its promise to centre the victims rather than revel in operatic, grand guignol mayhem. (Like Monster did.)
The fact that Gacy was either bisexual or gay added salacious interest to the case after his arrest, while also allowing him to get away with his crimes, as many of the boys were runaways or sex workers, meaning the police – as is so often the case when they failed to spot serial predators – didn't feel motivated to join the dots.
Reason three: Michael Chernus, who plays Gacy, has been described as "phenomenal" in the role. Previously best known as a comic actor in the likes of Severance, Men in Black 3 and Werewolves Within, this is a different direction for him. RogerEbert.com said, "even as Chernus embodies his real character’s midwestern nice [...] it’s also clear that there’s evil and sickness at this man’s core."
"There are already so many different films and documentaries and books and podcasts about him," Chernus told The Hollywood Reporter, "I felt like I needed to take a big swing at it."
When can I see Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy?
The eight-part series drops in full on ITVX on January 30th. If you'd like to see the trailer, here it is:
What other serial-killer dramas should I watch?
It's not like you aren't spoiled for choice, but we wouldn't recommend just anything. Not without caveats, at least.
If you're made of tough stuff and enjoy a theatrical, horror-movie take on true crime, then you can check out Ryan Murphy's Monster series on Netflix, which covers Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers and Ed Gein over three series. But we'd warn you that they lean heavily into sensationalisation.
For a more nuanced look at psychopathy and the systemic failures that allow serial predators to flourish, you could try Des, starring David Tennant in a powerful performance as Dennis Nilsen, currently available on Netflix, ITVX and Disney+.
We'd also recommend Manhunt on ITVX, which stars Martin Clunes as the real-life DI Colin Sutton and follows the investigation that led to the capture of Levi Bellfield.
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Editor, Digital Spy Chris has over 25 years' experience as a writer and editor, having worked as a journalist covering TV and movies since the '90s. Starting out as a TV listings editor at the Press Association, he was quickly hired by the nascent Heat magazine, where he rose to become Senior Editor, interviewing the likes of Simon Cowell, Boris Johnson and Paris Hilton. Over the years he has written about entertainment with clarity and wit for Heat, Elle, Q, The Telegraph and of course Digital Spy, and has served many times as a judge in the Royal Television Society awards. He has written and recorded a novelty single with Lord Lloyd-Webber, written scripts for the National TV Awards, made Noel Edmonds cry, accidentally punched an Inbetweener and stolen a small piece of rubble from the Battle of Hogwarts movie set. (They can't have it back.) LinkedIn
