D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear
USA Network promotional image for the D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear T.V. movie based on the sniper attacks
Written by	Dave Erickson
Directed by	Tom McLoughlin
Starring	Charles S. Dutton Jay O. Sanders Bobby Hosea Trent Cameron Helen Shaver
Music by	Mark Snow
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Orly Adelson Jonathan Eskenas Tracey Jeffrey
Cinematography	Mark Wareham
Editor	Charles Bornstein
Running time	85 minutes
Production companies	Orly Adelson Productions USA Cable Entertainment
Original release
Network	USA Network
Release	October 17, 2003 (2003-10-17) (United States)

D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear (also known as Sniper: 23 Days of Fear in Washington D.C.) is a 2003 TV movie created by USA Network based on the Beltway sniper attacks of 2002.

The films chronicles the period when John Allen Muhammad (played by Bobby Hosea) and Lee Boyd Malvo (played by Trent Cameron) went on a serial killing spree in October 2002 in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland, all parts of the Washington Metropolitan Area, the entire area of which was held in a "grip of terror."^[1]

Plot

In October 2002, Chief Charles Moose (played by Charles S. Dutton) of the Montgomery County Police Department, heads an effort to track down those responsible for a recent string of murders in Montgomery County, Maryland.^[2]

Unable to give anything but small pieces of information at various press conferences held during the 23 dark days, Moose finds himself vilified and derided in many corners as ineffectual and incompetent. Indeed, quite a few newspapers outside the area targeted by snipers came right out and called for Moose's resignation. But the chief's dogged persistence ultimately paid off and — in the sort of twist that a professional writer of thrillers might dismiss as inconceivable — the two men arrested for the carnage turned out to be the archetypal "least likely suspects."^[2]

Release

D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear originally aired on the USA Network on October 17, 2003, just as John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo's murder trials were getting underway.