In 'Relentless', Detective Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi) defeated the notorious "Sunset Killer", then in 'Relentless 2', He tackled another highly-trained martial arts enabled serial killer. Now, in this third and powerful outing, Dietz returns to do battle with a new breed of sociopath in the form of the intense actor, William Forsythe. Forsythe plays Walter Hilderman, who is killing many women, mutilating them and then taunting the police by sending letters and pieces of skin in envelopes, and meanwhile interfering with Dietz's personal life and sanity. This is definitely a stand-alone film in the series, and a very competent ensemble cast plays it out believably if not unpredictably, but the real treat is Forsythe's performance as the seductive Walter. Forsythe stated that he did extensive research on serial killers in order to construct the perfect persona of the silk shirt wearing, self-confident and brutal murderer, and it shows. This is the smooth-talking, charismatic guy that everyone likes, and that is what makes this such disturbing material to watch. Rossi is in top form as the stubborn, sometimes self-centered cop from the school of hard knocks, and Its interesting to see how his character's emotional problems with his job wreck havoc on his personal relationships and mental stability. Also thrown into the mix is a convincing performance by Savannah Smith Boucher as Walter's sympathetic live-in girlfriend that he continuously controls and torments emotionally and mentally, and Signy Coleman is good as Dietz's intelligent love interest.This has few fatal flaws. The biggest being the extensive cuts made so that New Line Cinema can get its R-rating, and its evident in the editing. Another is the lack of appearance of Meg Foster, who brought so much to the series. Also, a very abruptly weak ending dampens the mood. Nonetheless, This is worthy for Forsythe's performance alone, who is agreed that this is some of his best and under appreciated work.

As with the second in the series, this keeps getting better than the previous film but also gets sleazier, so there is a good and bad material here. It's a rough film, make no mistake, but it's very interesting all the way. It has many of the same elements the two other films had: some grisly scenes, rough language but a fast-moving film which really goes fast considering it's only 80-some minutes long.Leo Rossi once again stars but I liked his partner (Robert Costanzo) much better. William Forsythe once again plays a creepy killer. He seems to be typecast. The female lead is someone I haven't seen before or since: attractive Signy Coleman.I did get confused a couple of issues such as how the detectives figured a few things out and that end. Also, whatever happened to "Marianne?" They do discuss something briefly but I couldn't get it. I don't claim this film is a great work of art: just entertaining.Without giving anything I will say I liked the ending which wasn't the usual clichéd one. This is the only one in the series I would consider re-purchasing for DVD but it isn't available.

This is a great Crime film with plenty of action and lots of blood and guts through out the entire film. Leo Rossi (Sam Dietz),"Back by Midnight",'02 was a rough and tough detective who never gave up, no matter how many of his fellow cops got killed. Leo was relentless in trying to find a very sick Serial Killer who managed to kill all his victims even police men with out any problems. William Forsythe (Walter Hilderman),"Run for the Money",'02, kept everyone on their toes and gave a great supporting role. Savannah Smith Boucher,(Marianne),"Nursie",'02, gave a very hot and sexy performance, however, there was not much time for sex or romance in this film. In one scene a real bad guy gets pistol wipped To DEATH!!

The first was mediocre, the second was great, but the third entry STINKS! Leo Rossi's character here is repulsive and not likable in any way. Everybody acts unbelievably stupid here. Pre-release cuts to prevent the movie getting an NC-17 also hurt the film. The actor who plays the villain actually isn't bad, considering the material he's given.