Don Burnside (The Clovehitch Killer)

**Donald "Don" Burnside** (Dylan McDermott) is the villain of the 2018 coming of age-thriller *The Clovehitch Killer*. He was a well-regarded figure in the small town of Clarkesville, being the father of main protagonist Tyler Burnside and his younger sister Susie, as well as the husband of their mother Cindy. The family were also the caretakers of Don's brother Rudy, who had been rendered an invalid following a traffic accident.

The film's opening scenes established a close bond between father and son (with Don being the Scoutmaster of Tyler's Boy Scout troop) while also revealing that a decade ago, Clarkesville was menaced by a mysterious killer known as Clovehitch who brutally murdered ten women by strangulation, tying them to their beds with a clovehitch knot. Despite his initial good relationship with his father, Tyler began to have suspicions as to his father potentially harbouring secrets after discovering disturbing bondage pornography in his truck. Tyler's further investigation saw him break into his father's locked shed where he discovered a polaroid photograph of a tied-up woman labelled "Nora - Lucky's favourite". Searching online, Tyler learned that Nora was the name of one of Clovehitch's victims while Don noticed that the lock on his shed had been disturbed.

After Cindy believed that Tyler was looking at porn on the family computer, Don gave him a talk wherein he ominously stated that violent or other intrusive thoughts were common "monkey stuff" while jokingly swinging a hammer at his son's face. Tyler next allied himself with local outcast teenager Kassi, who harboured a deep interest in the murders and a desire to see Clovehitch brought to justice. The duo would eventually find blueprints for an elaborate torture dungeon in Don's shed. While searching the crawlspace under the house, Tyler made the shocking discovery of the existent dungeon as well as a box containing the driver's licenses of every women murdered by Clovehitch. Realising that Tyler had made the revelations, Don took him camping to discuss the matter.

While in the woods, Don claimed to Tyler that it was in fact Rudy who was Clovehitch and that he had kept the evidence in order to protect his family. Don then burnt the evidence while Tyler watched, believing that his father was truly innocent. Kassi, who was revealed to be the daughter of Clovehitch victim Crystal Harper, implored him to reconsider, and the duo began to covertly follow Don (who believed that his son was away at Boy Scout leadership camp). Don convinced Cindy to take Susie to go visit her grandmother, becoming unable to get an erection while having sex with her the night before her departure.

Now believing himself to be alone in the town, Don began to reveal his true nature as the actual Clovehitch killer, stalking a woman at the grocery store to her home in order to find out where she lived. In his own home, Don dressed in his wife's clothes while wearing a grotesque mask of a woman's face in order to stimulate the bondage photographs he burned. At that moment, Kassi entered the house to distract Don while Tyler secretly placed a GPS tracker on his phone. After she left, Don threw a manic fit over the stimulated photographs failing to arouse him.

Don next marked the grocery store woman's home with a clovehitch, breaking open her basement window in preparation for attacking her in order to fulfill his twisted fantasies. The next day, Don cemented his heel turn into resuming his murders, donning a black mask and breaking into the woman's house as she slept. Waking the woman up, Don claimed that he was wanted by the police for robbing a bank, taking her hostage with a gun. Don took a polaroid of the woman before tying her up in the bedroom and preparing to kill her, choking her with a rope briefly before gagging her.

The evil Don continued tormenting the women, choking her with a plastic bag and taking another photograph of her. At that moment, Tyler snuck into the room with a shotgun and held his villainous father at gunpoint. Don continued to manipulate his son, claiming that he and his intended victim were merely having a kinky affair. Don then knocked out Kassie when she attempted to grab his gun. Eventually, Don was able to convince Tyler to hand over the shotgun, immediately attempting to murder his own son to keep him quiet. However, the gun turned out to be unloaded resulting in a struggle between Don and Tyler, with the former being knocked out by Kassie with a lamp after he attempted to strangle Tyler to death. Wanting to protect his mother and sister, Tyler then (off-screen) convinced Kassie to shot Don in the head, dumping his body in the forest to pass his death off as a suicide. The film ended with Tyler faking an affectionate speech in memory of his father, Don's evil secret being brought with him to the grave.