The Speedway Murders: Movie Review

There can be no denying the true crime genre has been flayed to death on screen, whether it's via trashy reconstructions or tawdry Netflix docu-series.

However, in recounting the bizarre and to-this-day-unexplained murders of four teenagers at a burger restaurant in rural America, first-time filmmakers Luke Rynderman and Adam Kamien have created something that feels fresh and enticing. full of directorial difference and crucially reverence to the victims.

On a fateful Friday in November 1978, four young employees went missing from Indianapolis fast food chain Burger Chef. Their bodies were discovered two days later, some 30 km away.

Plenty of theories exist about their mysterious disappearance, but the directors are a little less interested in drawing long bow suspicions about the murders, and more interested in humanising their victims.

To that end, the directors use the quartet to discuss the various theories and use the actors to replay certain scenes again and again gradually building up slices of information and insight to make the film feel more nuanced and ultimately, more tragic.

But not once do they dip their toes into overegging the device or using it to string audiences and their emotions along.

Tautly constructed and edited more with the heart than the eye, The Speedway Murders is an accomplished film that's engrossing, infuriating and somehow hopeful.

Depressingly, what's most worrying about The Speedway Murders is how it may cause ripples in the genre it dabbles in and how others will likely ape it and swamp the medium with pale imitations.

This film is playing as part of the 2024 Whanau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival. For more details, visit nziff.co.nz