Apt Pupil

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

While much of the blood-curdling violence has been cleansed from Stephen King's novella, director Singer has managed to capture all of the psychological horror in this character study. Todd Bowden (Renfro) becomes fascinated with the Holocaust after studying World War II in school. He discovers that a former SS officer, Kurt Dussander (McKellan) is living in anonymity and seclusion in his town. Todd tracks down the man and blackmails him, threatening to go to the authorities unless he relate the atrocities of the death camps to him in excruciating detail. The sessions turn diabolically evil as Todd absorbs the evil that is unleashed from Dussander.