Detective Collins, Dr.Golding, and Dr. Beale

Dr. Richard Murray (Jeff Fahey) is getting messages but from where?  That’s the central question in this suspenseful mystery story about a serial killer on the loose. The messages on his computer beg for help.  Are they from beyond the grave?  From his own subconscious?  From someone playing with his mind?  This question is a large part of the suspense.

But this is a mystery story with a twist. If you’re expecting CSI: England, you won’t find it in this film.  It deliberately sets a dark and moody tone. In turn artsy, eerie and somber, the only “comic” relief is Detective Collins, the serial killer specialist (Martin Kove) brought in from Los Angeles. He isn’t intended to be funny but he is because he is such a cliché of the English view of an American “cowboy” – brash and obnoxious. However irritating the character—which is very, his brashness makes a certain amount of sense if you view it as a defense mechanism.  Dealing with the horrid aftermath of serial killers on an every day basis is a bit straining on the psyche. Might make you a bit testy too.

My main problem with Collins is not his obnoxiousness but his relevance. England has lots of serial killer experts. Why bring in an outsider?  Seems gratuitous to me. But at least the forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Beale (Kim Thomson) is English.  Maybe they just needed a counterpoint to the other sometimes drab, sometimes confused, often somber characters.

Then there is Dr. Robert Golding (Bruce), the chief medical examiner.  Dr. Golding is reserved, mysterious, not especially sympathetic.  But then, none of the characters in this moody film are particularly people you'd want to have a pint with down at the local pub.  (Murray is confused and guilt-ridden because of his wife's death months ago,  Collins is obnoxious and Beale is brittle) Like the movie, Dr. Golding is moody and somber.  Not unlike Dr McCort from Asylum of the Damned except that Dr. Golding isn't wacko!  Dr. Golding, we are pleased to report, doesn’t do unauthorized experiments in the basement...

Alas, Bruce is not in the film long enough to suit his fans but his character, with that crisp and resonant English accent we so often don’t get to hear in Bruce films, will be a fan pleaser.

The second puzzle is--who is the serial killer?  Are the messages coming from Murray's guilty, perhaps psychotic, conscience?  Is it Golding, who has consorted with one of the victims?  Is it that odd woman?  Or some even more unlikely possibility?  Like any good suspense novel, the suspects abound. But when we do find the answer to the puzzle,  does it make sense?

The big question for me was –is the film psychologically sound?  Leaving aside the supernatural possibilities, I was pleased to see that the answer is yes.  I wasn’t sure at first where the fim was going but ultimately the serial killer does fit at least part of the classic profile. (The profile is always an estimate and not every killer fits exactly) Since this a suspense film, I can’t tell you why or who. That would kill (pardon the expression) the suspense.  No fun there.

Overall, we thought the film was well worth watching.  I did think the ending was a bit hokey but maybe you’ll see it differently. A lot is left to the individual viewer to decide. Were the messages supernatural, hallucinations, or something else?  Decide for yourself.

 
Reviewed by Ariel

Ariel’s alter ego is a psychology professor who teaches forensic psychology and so is very fussy about films dealing with serial killers.  Israfel, who contributed to this review, is just as fussy.  The fact that no one at the crime scenes has a hair covering like actual forensic investigators do is something we can overlook because NO ONE in TV or the movies ever does. At least they had the shoe coverings and gloves in this film!