Luther: The Fallen Sun
Directed by Jamie Payne
- crime
- mystery
- thriller
The story
A gruesome serial killer is terrorizing London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.
What it’s like
Dim, rain-slicked London rendered in cold blues, sodium-orange streetlight and the sickly glow of screens, with the grime of prison corridors set against the hard glass of modern offices. Director Jamie Payne frames his people tightly and often handheld, so a face under fluorescent strip-light fills the screen and the city feels like something closing in. The score pulses with low synth throbs and sudden stings, and silence is used as a weapon between bursts of tension. Pacing is relentless and brisk, built around chases, interrogations and escalating reveals rather than quiet stretches. The tone is grim, tense and sombre, with a lonely, obsessive man at its centre whose need to finish a fight costs him everything. Violence is frequent and sometimes graphic, including murders with visible gore, plus threats, kidnapping and psychological cruelty; expect dread and brutality rather than gentleness. It suits late-night viewing for people who want a hard-edged, dark British thriller with a relentless hunt at its core.
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