Apt Pupil
At the top of his game, Stephen King has a real gift for mining  monsters--zero-at-the-bone horror--out of everyday faces and places. Adapted  from a novella in the1982 collectionthat also spawnedStand by MeandThe  Shawshank Redemption,Apt Pupillooks at first as if it might draw  authentically enlightening terror from the soul-cancer that makes blood  relations of a Southern California golden boy (Brad Renfro) and an aging Nazi  war criminal (Sir Ian McKellen). Turned on by a high-school course about the  Holocaust, Todd Bowden (such a bland handle for this top-of-his-class  sociopath!) tracks down Kurt Dussander, a former Gestapo killer hiding in the  shadows of sunny SoCal. Blackmailing the old man into sharing his firsthand  stories of genocide, the teenager trips out on the virtual reality of the  monster's memories. There's perverse play here on the way a kid hungry for  knowledge can bring a long-retired teacher or grandparent back to life. Truly  superb as James Whale inGods and Monsters, McKellen brings subtlety to this  Stephen King creepshow: his dessicated Dussander is like a mummy or vampire revivified by Todd's appetite for atrocity.Considerable talent intersects inApt Pupil: It's director Bryan Singer's  first film sinceThe Usual Suspects, that enormously popular, rather heartless thriller-machine. The outstanding cast also includes David  Schwimmer as a Jewish guidance counselor pathetically impotent in the face of  Todd's talent for evil, and Bruce Davison as Todd's All-American Dad, lacking  the capacity to even imagine evil. And the story itself has the potential for  gazing into the heart of darkness right here in Hometown, U.S.A. ButApt Pupiljust turns ugly and unclean when it trivializes its subject, equating  Holocaust horrors with slamming a cat into an oven or offing a nosy vagrant (Elias Koteas). Reducing the great spiritual abyss that lies at the center of  the 20th century to cheap slasher-movie thrills and chills is reprehensible.  Both Todd and the writers ofApt Pupilshould have heeded the old saw: When  supping with the devil, best use a long spoon.--Kathleen Murphy