Steven Prusakowski
If you think you know who John Wayne Gacy is, you probably don’t know Jack. While Gacy looms large in the pop culture zeitgeist, a name synonymous with the menacing moniker “Killer Clown,” few know the details surrounding the man’s reign of terror. For decades, the story of the serial killer has been reduced to pulpy true crime specials and half-remembered urban legends about a clown luring victims to their doom. Yet, the true depth of his atrocities, especially the lives he destroyed, often gets lost in the mix.
For Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy showrunner Patrick Macmanus dares to do something different when telling the story of the killings committed by John Wayne Gacy (played with terrifying duality by Michael Chernus). He avoids delivering another exploitative dive into a serial killer’s psyche; instead he focuses on telling a somber human story, one that shifts the focus to the victims, their families, those working on the case, and the toll of the crimes on a community.
(Watch the full Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy red carpet interviews with the cast and showrunner/writer at bottom of the article)
The series still delivers a great deal of insight into the mind of Gacy with alarming results thanks to Chernus’s performance that strips away any glorification and taps right into the dark soul of the monster. The series is impeccably shot, its muted cinematography is authentic, menacing, and restrained, taking us uncomfortably into Gacy’s spaces. It transforms modern day Toronto into 1970s suburban Chicago with intricate production design, costumes, hair, makeup and post-production video treatment, capturing the feel of the era.
The subject matter of a man who preys on, and ultimately murders, young men and teenage boys under the guise of being the neighborhood good guy may make many uneasy in a time when it is difficult to find escapes from reality. It is often dour and disheartening in a way that may have you questioning who you really know and the blind faith we bestow in systems that are meant to keep us safe. At the same time it delivers on truths with empathy and compassion that helps make it tolerable even if encompassed by grimness.
Each episode centers around a different victim’s story, exploring who they were outside their tragic demises as people living their lives rather than defining them by their connection to Gacy – their interaction with him rarely, if ever shown. The series uses actual victims’ backstories and often the actual words of the people they left behind to paint pictures of humanity snuffed out way too early. Textured representations that abstain from casting them all as saints and never feel exploitative. Photographs, film, and interviews of the people whose lives Gacy decimated amplify the emotional truth rather than allowing the series to delve into gore or shock. The decision to not show any of the murders helps alleviate the morally questionable voyeuristic vibes other “true crime” series give off, while still remaining some of the most chilling and riveting television you will watch all year.
At the series’ red carpet premiere in New York, Macmanus, shared his approach to taking on this challenging project – one he turned down several times until it could be told respectfully, “My goal was ultimately to find every way possible to not sensationalize the story. That was the ultimate goal. It began with the victims,” explained Macmanus. “We don’t show a single murder in the show on screen, not one. To your point of what you just asked about the killer clown, you never see the clown in the show. There are allusions to it though.” This restraint is quite powerful, stripping away the tabloid allure of Gacy’s Clown persona and allowing us to see more than a psycho killer but rather something much scarier, evil hiding in plain sight.
Delivering this complex portrayal required a nuanced, multifaceted performance that unveils the “killer clown” lurking beneath Gacy’s facade of normalcy. Michael Chernus captures this with nightmarish precision, seamlessly shifting from a lovable, crowd-pleasing goof to a predator consumed by sexual obsessions. His Gacy operates under a twisted moral code that absolves him of guilt or responsibility, including for his own homosexual desires and actions, discussing victims with the same casual indifference as he would a phone bill.
During my interview with Chernus he described immersing himself into Gacy’s psyche, “He had no empathy for these boys and young men. I don’t think he really had even real human compassion or emotions in the way that we think of them. I think he was a true psychopath,” explained Chernus. The dark void at Gacy’s core made his ability to charm and deceive even more unnerving. Chernus’s performance avoids caricature, presenting an ominous predator whose emotional detachment allowed him to operate unchecked, whose charm is often welcomed with a handshake.
One of the series’ most chilling scenes occurs in episode two but its eeriness resonates throughout the remainder of the series and beyond. It both spotlights Michael Chernus’s extraordinary performance and is the first time he peels back Gacy’s mask. In the scene, seated in the back of a police car, he nonchalantly describes the four versions of Gacy: John the politician, John the contractor, John the Clown, and Jack. Until this moment, viewers have only seen the first three – variations of a likable, unassuming persona – the folksy Midwestern everyman. Jack, however, is the deranged alter ego, he describes by stating coldly, “Jack does evil things.”
Despite openly revealing his fragmented self, Gacy remains hauntingly detached and lacking any remorse, blaming Jack for his heinous crimes while refusing to see himself as the killer. It’s a bizarre defense mechanism, fueling his indignation when his reputation is tarnished. Like a flip of a switch, Jack surfaces. Then as quickly as he appears Gacy to slips back to making jokes and trying hard to charm his present company as if nothing’s changed. Chernus disappears into Gacy- and when Jack appears, John vanishes into Jack. Is it all an act? This terrifying disconnect, a man cloaked in a twisted sense of moral superiority yet utterly vile to the core, makes Gacy all the more horrifying- in ways that feel unsettlingly familiar today.
While Chernus does much of the heavy lifting, he is surrounded with an outstanding cast that breathes the soul into the series. Marim Ireland, who plays Elizabeth Piest, the mother of one of the victims, who is grappling with the aftermath of loss. She serves as our guide to the loved ones of other victims, giving us access to their stories while exploring her own grief. During our conversations she underscored the show’s commitment to honoring the families, “To really actually think about what the families went through and to kind of honor that and pay respect to that in many ways, and to sort of tell their story about, you know, then the rest of their lives were changed.” Her words highlight the series’ delicate balance – acknowledging the horror without glorifying it, giving voice to some of the many often overshadowed by Gacy’s infamy.
Layered with raw emotion, Ireland brings this mission to life, making the audience feel the weight of a mother’s grief that lingers long after the headlines fade. She further reflected on the storytelling approach, “And it’s a challenge because it’s really easy to get mired in the actual details. And when you’re telling a story that’s limited by time, there’s only so much you can do. So I’m really impressed with the way that Patrick and the team managed to kind of… They kind of craft each episode in support of one or two of the victim’s stories” This focus on individual victims’ stories allows the series to create a deeper personal connection, inviting viewers to imagine the ripple effects on countless lives.
The series also digs into the societal failures that allowed Gacy to evade justice for so long. Macmanus doesn’t shy away from this critique, “So much of what allowed John Wayne Gacy to get away with what he got away with was the fact that there was an inherent prejudice within the policing community that enabled him to get away. They had multiple opportunities to solve the case over the six years of the majority of his reign of terror, and either because of communications issues, which is understandable, or prejudice, they ignored it.” The series casts a spotlight on the systemic issues, prejudices and bureaucratic missteps, that enabled Gacy’s crimes to continue much longer than they should.
Devil In Disguise avoids blanket vilification of the system, noting the dedication of police officers like those portrayed by James Badge Dale and Gabriel Luna, who worked tirelessly to identify victims. Gabriel Luna, who plays Detective Rafael Tovar, brings a personal dimension to this systemic lens, portraying a Latino detective navigating a predominantly white police force. He explained, “So what we all did was we leaned into showing love and trying to restore and reclaim the humanity of the 33 young men and boys that were taken. And Gacy in our story serves as just this kind of looming cloud, this frame to put the story in. Everyone in the story is affected by those acts, but by no means are they defined by them.”
Luna’s performance is layered and haunted, capturing the toll of the case on Tovar, a man striving to make a mark in a challenging environment, relentless though exhausted by Gacy’s horrors. Luna further elaborated on the role’s emotional weight, “That’s what my part of the story kind of comes to represent, the kind of toll it takes on people’s families and everybody who worked on this case because really no one emerged unscathed.” As Tovar and his colleagues explore deeper into Gacy’s mind and home, more and more disturbing horror is revealed.
Devil in Disguise succeeds because it dares to be different. I honestly wanted to avoid the series – the world is grim enough to have to include even more true evil into it. While the weight of what really happened can be a little draining (I recommend one episode at a time), it is not a lurid true crime spectacle but a human drama with “true crime DNA” as Macmanus put it, one that prioritizes humanity over horror. Devil in Disguise is one of the biggest surprises on television this year, telling this often misrepresented story with poignant dignity. An eerie, sobering plunge into the crawl spaces of a deranged mind, that keeps the previously forgotten victims at the forefront.
SCORE: ★★★1/2
The full eight-episode miniseries of Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is now available to stream exclusively on Peacock. It also stars Michael Angarano, Ted Dykstra, and Chris Sullivan
INTERVIEWS WITH THE CAST & SHOWRUNNER/EP OF ‘DEVIL IN DISGUISE’
RED CARPET PHOTOS FROM THE NYC PREMIERE
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