Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993 TV Movie) User Reviews

"Sure, I'm all right"

[evening1 · 6/10 · 4 January 2024]

Who could forget Robert Blake as the aspirin-chewing killer of "In Cold Blood" (1967)?

Here he plays obsessive New Jersey accountant John List, who thinks it better to kill his family than face financial ruin. It's perfect casting for a man who has never quite outgrown an overly close relationship with his mother.

It's fascinating to observe how List becomes alienated from his deeply unhappy wife. Luckily, we are spared the murders of his three kids. His daughter was in the hands of the Devil -- "She wanted to be an actress" -- and his sons were innocent, so he "sent them to heaven."

Such a sad reminder to get out of one's head, and get help.

Did David Caruso get paid for this?...

[AlsExGal · 4/10 · 26 December 2021]

... Because he is third billed, is hardly on screen versus everybody else, and he spends most of the time he is on camera mutely over emoting. This premiered in February 1993, so this was before he was a shooting star on NYPD Blue the following year.

This was Robert Blake's first acting job in eight years, and he does a serviceable job playing this film's version of John List. I'm not sure List was this powder keg always about to explode that he is portrayed here, but then the guy was such a loner all his life there probably is not much in the way of insight in existence unless it is coming from police psychiatrists after List's arrest. If you don't know, List is infamous for having bought a mansion, then lost his job as a bank executive when he could not relate to people, pretended to his family that he still had that job, embezzled from his mother to meet his bills, and then when the money ran out killed his elderly mother, his wife, and his three children and was a fugitive from justice for 17 years before being caught in 1989.

The film follows List after he murders his family and disappears, but pretty much shows the same pattern in his new life that he had in his old one - He finds a church, gets married to a woman who is looking for security who is ultimately disappointed in his ability to provide, buys a house he cannot afford, and is frustrated by his lack of success in the workplace.

It gets one key thing wrong - When List was arrested he initially denied that he was John List. Also the great irony of List killing his family at least in part because of the financial burden of the mansion he bought in New Jersey is not mentioned. That irony was that after the house burned down in 1972 it was discovered that the stained glass sky light over the ballroom was Tiffany glass and worth an estimated hundred thousand dollars at the time. That would have solved List's financial problems.

This is a very mediocre and lazy effort at telling one of the great true crime stories of the twentieth century, and I found it disappointing overall.

Chilling and true

[dtucker86 · 24 August 2003]

John List was a devout Lutheran who lived with his wife, mother and three children. He grew up as an only child with strict German parents, he had an overly protective and domineering mother (sort of like Norman Bates). List had a masters degree in accounting, but lacked social skills and had a history of losing jobs. People who knew him describe him as an odd and reclusive man who had few friends. He was such a tight ass he would wear a shirt and tie to mow the lawn. One day he snapped and murdered his entire family and got away with it for almost twenty years until America's Most Wanted captured him. That is the story in a nutshell and this film is a good depiction of it. Blake plays List as a milquetoast with rage underneath. this was his first acting in eight years and he won an Emmy nomination for his performance. List claimed that he killed his family because he was worried his daughter wanted to be an actress a job he considered sinful and his wife was sick. Bull@#$%! List was in financial trouble and just wanted to get out and start a new life, that is why he killed his family. His lawyer tried to use this excuse at his trial, but thats all it was. He killed his family to just get rid of them thats all. They featured List's story on a tv show I like called Forensic Files recently and it was just as riveting as this film. Theres one man I would like to take my hat off too. He is a Forensic sculptor named Frank Bender. He created a bust of what List would look like twenty years later and it led to his capture when they showed it on tv. He went over pictures of List and even consulted a forensic psychologist to create a psychological profile of the killer. He even correctly predicted what kind of glasses List would wear twenty years later, a pair with dark frames to hide the fact he was a failure. It led to this killer's capture. List was sentenced to life in prison and to this day has shown no remorse for his terrible crimes. I just cannot believe a human being could be so cold-hearted to murder his wife, mother and three children. I saw this film again on Court TV and it was even more chilling giving the recent circumstances surrounding Robert Blake. I think he killed his wife, and I even wonder if he got the idea from making this film!

America's most wanted

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 4 February 2015]

Based on true events this is a disjointed and at times confusing story of John List a conservative member of the Lutheran Church, an accountant by trade, a poor husband and father especially as he lacked the social skills to deal with his colleagues at work and could not deal with his children as they grew older.

Unable to hold down a job or get promotion and deep in debt he killed his family including his supposedly overbearing mother and was in hiding for about 20 years in which time he got a new identity and married again.

According to the film List was helped to secure his escape because of the length of time it took for the victims bodies to be discovered and the ineffectual role of the law enforcement agencies. It was only the actions of one determined cop and the help of a television show that brought List to justice.

The film starts after List has killed his wife, children and mother. We see blood, we him eating his dinner and cleaning up before he leaves the property. We get flashbacks of him as a child being taught life lessons by his mother.

Living in Britain, I had no idea about this true life story and when the murders took place. Therefore I was left confused as to the time setting of the murders. It could had been anywhere in the 1950s to the 1980s going buy the cars and the art direction. It would had helped if the film gave the viewer a date setting even though the filmmakers took creative licence with the story.

The film is pieced together by the investigating officer talking to various family members, fellow workers and a priest leading to flashbacks leading up to the murders. These flashbacks continue throughout the film as we see List leading his new life and in a sense repeating the mistakes he made with his first family.

The problem is that apart from Robert Blake, no one gets a chance to make an impression with their characters. David Caruso is wasted in almost what is a cameo.

The way Blake portrays List, he is almost a loony toon about to go off like a firecracker at any minute. His List is a man out of sync with the world. There is nothing unusual about that, I know many religious people where religion is in effect a comfort blanket in a world that they do not understand.

We are told in the movie that the reason he was unable to hold a job was he lacked the skill set to get along with people. He was passed over for promotion, in social settings with families of co-workers he was embarrassed by his wife who caused scenes including making allegations that he was a wife beater. Blake's characterisation was so frightening you are shocked that he managed to woo a woman and get married a second time.

The film has that 1990s cable television movie sheen, its rather badly made and wastes some good actors and an interesting story. Although made in 1993, the version of the film I saw was updated to include new captions that informs you that List died in 2008 and was buried next to his mother.

Chilling But True!!!

[Axiom-2 · 10/10 · 9 April 1999]

Judgment Day: The John List Story is another well done made for tv movie.

It's the true story about a man that was driven over the edge, and decides to kill his whole family (wife,3 kids, & his own mother). He planned it out & had a 2-week head start to get away. Robert Blake,s performance as John List was amazing. "John List" escaped from being captured for almost 20yrs. It took a profile on America,s Most Wanted to finally bring him to justice.

This movie may be disturbing to some viewers. But it's a story that had to be told. And it was done really well.

Engrossing but depressing, a gripping performance of the controversial man played by a controversial actor.

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 15 December 2022]

After creating one legendary character in the role of the murderer in Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood", Robert Blake went on to play another brutal killer, the murder of his mother, wife, stepchildren and biological children. Blake is absolutely gripping from beginning to end as the man consumed by his old time religion, brought up to hate the sin and the sinner thanks to his obsessed mother (a very scary Carrol Baker, as far as she could possibly be from her star making role in "Baby Doll") which leads him to great judgments against wife Beverly D'Angelo who was previously widowed and constantly compares him to her late husband. When a shocking twist about her past impacts d'angelo, Blake continues to go overboard until he makes the drastic decision that results in a family tragedy and sends him into hiding with another wife for 20 years, resulting in him being discovered as the case is never dropped.

In all fairness, the script wisely doesn't take a bashing at organized religion as a whole, but shows the dangers of extremism through certain conversations between Blake and Baker, and indicates that their evangelical preaching turns D'Angelo away from God. It was only during this scene that I began to wonder about the screenwriter's agenda, but for the most part, it's a fair look at how such pentecostal religions can make believers go overboard, although in the case of Blake's John List it is way overboard. The killings are insinuated at the beginning, and dramatically portrayed during the last part of the film. Those scenes are hard to watch, even though the viewer knows what has happened. I shook with grief at those moments, and yet found myself sympathizing with the manipulated character of John List, basically destroyed by his mother during adolescence. Melinda Dillon is great in support as the naive second wife, slowly coming to the realization that something is definitely wrong. One of the best true crime stories ever adapted for film, it is thought provoking and revealing, even though the viewer may be emotionally worn out after it is all over.

A Twisted God

[TeenActorFan · 9/10 · 12 June 2005]

John List was so apparently confused as to the will of God. Robert Blake did an awesome job of performing this twisted man. Awesome movie I suggest anyone interested in true life crimes to watch this one. One can only imagine the horrors that John List must have seen when he closed his eyes at night. His mother was in my opinion, the main reason John List was the way he was. She taught him some very odd lessons in life. His defense was "Guilty: Due to a twisted religious belief." Or words to that affect. I found is particularly curious that when confronted Robert Clark confessed he was John List. I didn't really expect that, but at the same time, I guess it does make sense since he was so concerned with sin.

One Twisted Freak

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 11 February 2009]

Eight years before Robert Blake went on trial for the murder of his own wife, he gave a powerful performance in Judgment Day: The John List Story about one of the most infamous mass murders in American history. When it happened the crime shocked the nation, but it was in for an even bigger shock when a broadcast by America's Most Wanted got List tracked down to Virginia where he was living under an alias not even a hundred miles from the scene of the List family massacre.

To all outward appearances John List was a respectable family man whose life centered around the Lutheran Church which he was a member. Inside he was a man drowning in debt, unable to hold a job down long in his field of accounting and not being able to deal with his kids who were growing up and to all intents and purposes simply acting like normal teens. He was brought up in a strict home with a domineering mother played in this film by Carroll Baker. She lived in the List home with the wife and kids in her own apartment and died there along with Beverly D'Angelo playing wife Helen List and the children.

Somewhere along the line, List determines that because his kids aren't turning into a carbon copy of himself, he determines they have to die before the temptations of the world get them. What so unbelievably freakish about the whole business was the months he took in meticulously planning the crime and his escape. The bodies were not discovered for a month by which time List had made good his escape and left a very cold trail.

In 1993 and I well remember the broadcast, John Walsh who occasionally took on some very cold cases like the List murder told about it and made use of a forensic pathologist who if List was still alive showed how he conceivably might have aged. Within a week someone tipped off their local police in Virginia that they thought this individual in their town could be John List. And so it was.

Blake gives a chilling performance of a demon driven man whose twisted view of religion causes him to perform unspeakable acts. Who knew at the time that maybe he was channeling some of his own demons in his performance.

Make sure to see Judgement Day: The John List Story if ever broadcast.

Leaves some to be desired...

[gunnyben · 27 January 2004]

IMO, the John List story is a fascinating and exciting one, and unfortunately, this movie does not really do it justice. Having read some of the available books about the life of John List and the resulting crimes, I found the movie somewhat disappointing, and I had been looking forward to seeing it. I am surprised there hasn't been more written about John List, since it is a more interesting and remarkable story than many others which have received far more attention. The actor playing John List is a good actor, but I do not believe this was the right part for him, especially having seen photos of the real List and having read the books. He isn't as convincing as he should have been. The role of the mother wasn't convincing either, as I felt there were some inconsistencies between the real person described in the books and the character as shown in the film. It was a satisfactory movie, but having enjoyed the books with their far greater detail, and finding them very interesting, the movie was sort of a disappointment... I'd like to see another try at this story, with a little more attention to detail and character development, because you lose a lot without understanding the background of the story better.

It was ok

[strosstrup · 27 December 2002]

I love Robert Blake. He is a perennial favorite(up to this point, of course). He is versatile, dynamic, and compelling. However, I think he was miscast in this role. Part of the problem is that nothing about him resembles John List. Although in a lot of scenarios, it is easy to look past the physical resemblance to characters, I found it very difficult to accept his portrayal of John List.

Insofar as the overall acting, it was marginal. Caruso was boring, and not particularly enthralling. D'Angelo was excellent as List's wife. The other tertiary characters added breadth to the film.

All in all, not a bad piece. It is watchable when you are flipping through cable looking for something other than reruns of Home Improvement.