Pennywise the homicidal clown from It dropped in to say “hi” every 19 years, iirc. What do you say about a serial killer who cycles every nine years? More than twice as efficient, no? Hat’s off to you, hooded girl person—besting the clown from It requires some impressive bloodletting.
In October of 1988, Officer Thomas Lockhart (Boyd Holbrook) was just another rookie Philadelphia city cop. This particular city cop had an itch to make detective just like his brother-in-law, Holt (Michael C. Hall), so when random Philly citizens have their brains turn to cheesesteak at the toll of a Liberty Bell, Lockhart is loaded for action.
Yes, there is something grotesque, disturbing, and weirdly adorable about the cop who hears about brains leaking out through nasal cavities and says, “Oooo, lemme see! Lemme see!”
Somewhere in the city, a hooded figure is giving people what appears to be random vaccinations – she spikes the back of the victim’s neck and the victim goes along normally for about ten minutes and then collapses into a pile with leaky oatmeal brain oozing everywhere. I didn’t want to describe that … but you should know what you’re getting into.
Lockhart and partner Maddox (Bokeem Woodbine) track the killer to the subway while Lockhart’s wife goes into labor. Dammit, man! Don’t you know you’re in a movie?! In movies, cop-with-wife-in-labor has the gravitational force of Jupiter acting on serial killers. Lockhart does indeed survive, but not before getting eerily omniscient messages from the hooded woman he’s nabbed. What’s even eerier? How could the omniscient woman not know she was going to buy it that night in the subway? Oh, but I can top that…how eerie is it when the same now-dismembered woman who appears to be the same age bearing the same outfit and the same weapon shows up to do the same stuff again (and membered) in 1997?
I never really thought much of Boyd Holbrook. Obviously, the name rings a bell because his great uncle is Hal Holbrook, a name that has haunted many a credits scroll over the years, but Boyd never made an impression on me, and continued not to do so even through the entirety of Act I. That changed. As In the Shadow of the Moon gets deeper in, Boyd Holbrook reminds you that he is actually a professional. The more make-up he wore (to depict an aging man), the more impressed I was with how fully Holbrook had embraced Lockhart’s obsession to solve this periodic mystery. And the desire to find resolution no matter how his personal Lockhart’s devolution becomes the pressing connection with the audience. I watched this film actively because I got into Lockhart’s obsession; that doesn’t happen a whole lot … especially for Netflix offerings.
There are going to be those disappointed by the reveal in the film. I don’t blame them, but I also don’t see it that way. In the Shadow of the Moon, to me, was less about the solving of a mystery as the cost of solving a mystery. Have you ever let anything in your life eat at you to the point where no outcome could possibly compensate for the effort put in? Heck, I’ve just described this blog in one question. And at that, I applaud In the Shadow of the Moon for celebrating the ill-advised and ill-rewarding ventures we all undertake.
A killer returns for an ongoing campaign
Time travel or some alien strain?
This is gonna sound silly
But since this is Philly
Don’t tell Rocky or he’ll come back again
Rated TV-MA, 115 Minutes
Director: Jim Mickle
Writer: Gregory Weidman, Geoffrey Tock
Genre: WTF?!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Sci-fi junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Anarchists
