Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.

Talk about your creepy documentaries: Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. is the weird, disturbing, interview and re-enactment account of an acquiescent electrical engineer who was once the country's foremost authority on execution equipment--until he became an amateur forensic investigator working to debunk the Holocaust. Creepy, laughable, sad and appalling, what makes Mr. Death absorbing is the way it gets under the uncanny Leuchter's skin, trying to understand his adamant defense of his wildly unreliable conclusions. Is he a anti-Semite? A ultra-rightist puppet? An insecure ignoramus clinging to his conclusions purely for the hero worship he has inspired in the neo-Nazi movement? Directed by documentary maestro Errol Morris (who made Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, and--most recently--Fast, Cheap and Out of Control), the film spins a good yarn while it troubles the soul, but, ultimately, the impression it leaves is one of manipulative horror-tainment. Optional. Aud: C, P. (R. Blackwelder)