The true story of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, nicknamed the Happy Face Killer, provides the inspiration for Lifetime’s original movie, Happy Face Killer. David Arquette leads the cast as Jesperson, and Gloria Reuben co-stars as Melinda Gand, the lead FBI investigator hunting down the serial killer.
Happy Face Killer will debut on March 1, 2014 at 8pm ET/PT. The dramatic film was directed by Rick Bota (Beauty and the Beast) from a script by Richard Christian Matheson (Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes).
The Happy Face Killer Plot:
Inspired by real-life events, Happy Face Killer follows the hunt and ultimate capture of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson (Arquette). An aspiring cop turned long-haul truck driver after a failed marriage, Jesperson strangled his first victim following an argument and was back on the road again the very next day, killing at least eight women over a five-year span as he crisscrossed the country. Upset after a woman falsely confesses that she and her boyfriend are responsible for one of his murders, Jesperson begins to taunt the authorities by sending a series of disturbing letters to newspaper editors, even scribbling confessions on the walls of highway rest stops admitting that he loved killing his victims.
By signing his morbid notes with a happy face, he earned himself the notorious nickname “Happy Face Killer” and forever left his mark of fear.
