Eye Candy #325 - "The Flock"

The Flock: A low-budget, direct-to-video thriller in the “Silence of the Lambs” variety, with Richard Gere as Erroll Babbage, an Albuquerque city employee responsible for keeping track of registered sex offenders (the ones he is responsible for are the “flock” of the title).  However, he has become more than a little obsessed with his work, acting more like a vigilante than public servant.  Claire Danes is a rookie assigned to learn the ropes from Erroll who comes to see Erroll‘s self-destructive obsession.  They soon find themselves on the trail of a kidnapper/killer that is baiting Erroll by kidnapping a local girl for your standard litany of sex and murder turn-ons.  After watching this film, I now have a new Woodchuck Rule of Film - sexual criminal thrillers are populated with characters with exotic names, all the way back to Jame Gumb.  Here we’ve got Erroll, Edmund, Custis, Haynes Ownby, amongst others.  Apparently there are no Bob Smiths in the realm of fictional killer-perverts.  Some of the characters are obviously based on Canadian killers Bernardo and Homolka.  Still the sum of the parts here is disappointing, and Claire Danes is no Jody Foster.  Woodchuck sez, “Largely underwhelming.”