Serial Killer Sub-Plot Problems

This was bungled in at least two ways:

1) Casting. Tobin Bell had recently played an evil, albino heavy in The Firm. He has many credits before that. They should have cast more of an unknown.

2) The staging is off. They have a good setup: Pullman's meeting with an attractive student (Paltrow) when the police detective arrives.

The problem is that Pullman's done talking to Paltrow, and THEN she bumps into Bell, drawing more attention to him. After your lead actor is done talking to a minor character, viewers know, on some level, that the scene is basically over, so anything else that happens must be there for a reason. Might as well hide your plot turn in a big wooden horse.

Instead, Paltow should have been leaving when Pullman reels her back, THEN she bumps into Bell, and the Associate Dean patronizes/possibly takes too much interest in her with scheduled wake-up calls.