A 1980’s beat Cop desperate to make detective becomes obsessed with a mind bending serial killer case in this often silly but entertaining Sci Fi caper.
Going into any amount of detail regarding the plot of this movie would amount to a spoiler so all I can say is once the prologue is out of the way attention turns to Locke (Boyd Holbrook) a young beat cop with a baby on the way who is going all out to make detective and is making no secret of that fact. The year is 1988, the setting is Philadelphia, the weather is terrible and random people are dropping dead with mysterious puncture wounds. After inserting himself into the case, Locke chases down the suspect and seemingly witnesses her death. What follows is a genre bending murder mystery as we jump forward in time to the 90s and the killer is back.
You have to admire the lofty ambitions director Jim Mickle has for this movie, at times its out and out Sci Fi thriller, social commentary or good old fashion crime thriller. The problem is it isn’t enough of either of these to be a truly satisfying movie. Mickle makes good use of its time jumping structure to tell the story, however in doing so we lose some of the characterisation of not just the supporting characters but the lead also. Essentially this means the only reason to continue watching is to unravel the mystery, we don’t particularly care who does it.
Verdict: 7/10. Overall this movie, as with most Netflix originals, won’t live long in the memory and its certainly not anything we haven’t seen before, however it is enjoyable and its message is a good one.

