In the Shadow of the Moon
Directed by Jim Mickle
- science fiction
- thriller
The story
In 1988, Philadelphia police officer Thomas "Locke" Lockhart, hungry to become a detective, begins tracking a serial killer whose crimes defy scientific explanation. When the killer mysteriously resurfaces nine years later, Locke's obsession with finding the truth threatens to destroy his career, his family, and possibly his sanity.
What it’s like
Grey, rain-slick Philadelphia streets under sodium streetlamps and hospital fluorescents, with a cold, muted palette that shifts between late-1980s and late-1990s textures. Crime-scene Polaroids, dim interiors and long nights in parked cars give it a claustrophobic, grimy feel, and the score leans on low synth pulses and tense, sustained drones. The pacing is a slow-burn procedural that tightens into dread as one stubborn detective chases a killer whose crimes don't add up, a setup that quickly becomes a study of obsession, anger and a man's fraying home life. The mood is bleak, tense and brooding rather than cozy. Violence is present throughout, including murders and grisly crime scenes, with some graphic moments, and its racist undercurrents are raw and unsettling. This suits viewers who want a moody, rain-soaked thriller on a late night alone, and who are comfortable with a dark, violent, character-driven mystery.
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