Killer in the Family, A

The sins of the father . Convicted murderer Gary Tison (Robert Mitchum) knows all about sin. And after his young sons bust him out of the joint, he makes sure they do too, leading the unwilling boys on a blood-soaked rampage of crime across the Southwest. Based on a true story, A Killer in the Family lays bare the horror of violence and the terrible power a father can exert over his children. The excellent cast includes James Spader, Lance Kerwin and Eric Stoltz as Tison's sons, plunged into a nightmare they cannot escape. But it's Mitchum -- who earlier etched two indelible portraits of pure evil in The Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear -- who dominates the film like a perverse and raging Old Testament patriarch.

• drama