When I tell my friends who haven't heard about this guy's story, the reaction is very often the same. It's unbelievable, straight out. Not-of-this-plane-of-existence surreal. An Edmonton, AB filmmaker who lured a person to his garage, duct taped him to a chair, then proceeded to torture and kill him...all seemingly directly from his movie script. He was best known for his doomed Star Wars fan video, one that he is reputed to have spent in the tens of thousands of dollars on, which in the end, went bankrupt and was never finished.



Of course, something like this doesn't always reek of mental disorder. People often have grandiose ideas that are impossible or imprudent, and usually are let down with a harsh tug off their cloud. However, it became apparent on his next project, with the working title of "House of Cards", that his passion for filmmaking was more of an obsession. He set up a film set in his garage, had a real crew, with actors, shooting the eight-minute long horror short. Actor Chris Heward described his ordeal. He was strapped to a metal chair, duct taped, and played the victim. The other actors were using real samurai swords, understandably, Heward "was nervous". Shortly after, he was contacted by the police asking if he knew anything about the snuff film industry, and if he knew a man by the name of John Atlinger.

The plot of House of Cards details the life of a husband in a not-so-perfect marriage who connects with a woman on a dating website online. He agrees to meet her and goes to her house, only to be stunned by a masked man and tied up. He is then tortured and murdered, with the final twist revealing it to be a fantasy, all in the imagination of the writer, cast and performed by none other than Twitchell himself.

Twitchell apparently was a big fan of the serial killer TV show Dexter, and his short film has similarities as well. The show has taken quite a bit of flak for these similarities. The duct tape, the dismemberment, all reminiscent of the average episode. He even tried to sell the script online, claiming it was directly from the show. The final twist in this case was that he was going to do it for real.

He lured John Atlinger to his garage by posting on a dating website, posing as a beautiful woman who wanted to meet him. Atlinger went to the address to meet a man holding a stun-gun. He said he was shooting a movie and asked to come inside. He didn't and went home, and for reasons unknown, returned the next day. He hasn't been heard from since. His friends received a suspicious email from his account claiming he was running away to Costa Rica with a woman he had just met, and his boss received his letter of resignation through email, however, most people didn't buy it, and the police got involved. It was soon discovered that this wasn't Twitchell's first victim either, another man contacted police later to inform them that he went through the same ordeal. A couple witnessed this man escaping, being chased by a man in a hockey mask wielding a samurai sword. It seems a bit surprising that he didn't say anything earlier, and perhaps he could have prevented the death of Mr. Atlinger.

The police have said that the forensic evidence discovered in the garage is enough to charge Twitchell, however, there is no body, and it has led some to speculate that he is doing this as a publicity stunt, sending Atlinger away for a few weeks and taking in the free media coverage. However, you'd think that it might be a good idea to give up the stunt before you go to jail for the rest of your life. For now, we'll wait and see and maybe we'll finally find out the complete story. Really strange to hear about something like this so close to home.

This is a great, quick summary of the story shown on global.



Sleep tight kiddies.