Continuity mistake: In the first minute or so of the first scene, the doctor, played by Alfred Molina, is writing notes about his patient. He writes the word evil. The movie shows ev connected as in a lazy type of cursive from the left side of the doctors hand, then switches to a view from the right of his hand. The ev is now unconnected written in non-cursive writing. (00:02:30)
Continuity mistake: When the man bursts into the motel, Larry is watching Wheel of Fortune. The words on the screen change between when we see the screen and when the man bursts in. However it's the same game on the TV. (00:04:20)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when we see Paris driving her car. She reaches back to get the lighter out of her bag, and when the bag flips open, the background to the left of the screen changes in an instant from being flat sanded ground to palm trees. (00:06:30)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when the stepfather is changing the wheel after the blow out, in one shot he is tightening the wheel nuts but in the next shot he is undoing them. (00:07:05)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film when the Limo hits the woman in the following shot she can be seen flat on the ground with her legs down. When the man crawls up to her, her legs are to the side. (00:07:25)
Continuity mistake: When the kid's mother puts her hand against the glass and steps back, she gets hit by the car and just AFTER she is hit, the brakes are applied. Then when they switch to when Ed is driving the lady, he slams the brakes on BEFORE she is hit, as if he saw her first. (00:07:40 - 00:08:50)
Revealing mistake: When John Cusack is driving the actress, there is a shot looking over his right shoulder at the dashboard. The speedometer reads 0 mph. (00:08:15)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning, just after Ed has hit the woman, he gets out to help and the husband is lying down next to her. When he says to Ed, "What have you done," his left hand is on Ed's jacket then puts it down to his wife, but in the next shot it is back tugging on Ed's jacket. (00:08:50)
Continuity mistake: When Ed is talking to the husband of the woman he just hit with his limo, as he looks to his left to see a boy, his right hand is not on the husband's shoulder, yet in the next shot it is. (00:09:00)
Continuity mistake: When Ed breaks the limo window with a crowbar to get the phone from the actress, Ed runs and picks it up in his left hand, but in the next shot it is in his right. Also, when he smashes the window, there is a small piece of glass at the top and a very jagged bit left at the bottom from Ed's POV, when it cuts to inside the limo they are gone. He also reaches inside the car twice. (00:09:25)
Audio problem: When Ed picks up the hooker and they are driving and talking it is a pretty quiet conversation considering that Ed busted out one of the windows to get Rebecca DeMourney's cell phone away from her. There should be some noise from the wind in the broken window. (00:09:50 - 00:12:30)
Continuity mistake: When Ed walks into the hotel's reception, he goes to pick up the boy and puts him in the green chair to the right of the screen, then when the camera cuts back to him after the hotel manager's line, he is doing the very same actions. (00:10:25)
Continuity mistake: When Paris waves down Ed in his car she is seen about 5 feet in front of her car but when the scene changes to Ed's perspective she is now seen standing even with the hood of her car. (00:12:00)
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the film when the actress is killed, watch closely in one shot you can see she is holding her mobile phone in her right hand then in the following shot when she turns around and screams she is now holding it in her left hand. (00:27:10)
Continuity mistake: When Ed the hotel manager and Rhodes discover the actress' body, they go rushing to room 10. When Rhodes enters the bathroom where he left the convict, Ed is standing behind him with his right arm by his side, yet in the following shot from the window, he now has his right hand on the bathroom doorframe. (00:31:25)
Continuity mistake: When Ginny is about to open the bathroom door, the position of the bolt changes between shots. (00:40:35)
Continuity mistake: Right before Ginny leaves the bathroom to find her husband dead, the knob on the lock is down. In the closeup, the knob is horizontal. (00:40:55)
Audio problem: When Paris goes to get her money from the hotel room and runs into Ed, in one shot Paris is talking, then it changes to Ed's face and Paris is still talking, but her mouth isn't moving. (00:45:55)
Continuity mistake: In the middle of the film just after Ed walks outside after taking photos of the dead husband, he calls Rhodes, then spots Larry across the way. Watch closely in one shot, we see Ed pass Rhodes, and in the very next shot he is some distance from Rhodes having just passed him in the previous shot. (00:49:55)
Revealing mistake: When the guests open up the freezer containing the dead hotel clerk, it falls towards the camera, i.e. the viewer. Right before it changes to the reaction shot of all the guests, the corpse blinks. (00:52:50)
Answer: The actual, "real-life" killings happened before the events shown in the movie and are shown briefly in a flashback. The authorities knew that Malcolm had done it while believing to be one of his alternate personalities, but did not know which one, and had to be convinced that the killer personality was dead before changing his sentence to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, the killings we see in the motel during the movie, are Malcolm killing off his other personas, leaving in fact only - the killer.
Twotall