A murder happens in a small town, and chief inspector Darwin (Kevin Golding), not used to such incidents, decides to rehire former inspector Henry (Cengiz Dervis) to do some investigations off the record and away from prying eyes, basically to avoid all scandal. Now Henry isn't really hero material, he's addicted to some pills and suffers from severe psychological problems, and without his wife Lyla (Julie Rose Smith), he would probably long have fallen apart - but taking care of him, Lyla's pretty much on the verge of breaking. That all said, the killer was a clever one, so it's not long before the case goes over Henry's head as well - and then a second murder happens, and it's not long before Henry finds out the two are connected - but Darwin just won't accept that there's a serialkiller in town, and if it wasn't for Henry's former partner Emily (Faye Sewell), the one who believes in him the most, Darwin would have taken Henry from the job. Eventually, Henry finds a clue to the killer, pretty much stumbles upon him and chases him through the streets - until he's hit by a car, and if it wasn't for Henry's neighbour Max (Lloyd Sparsi), Henry would have probably died on site. Thing is (and only the audience knows that), Max wasn't there by coincidence, he actually is the killer Henry's after. Henry starts to suspect Max pretty soon though, but everyone else, from Darwin to Lyla, think he's going paranoid, and it's only when Lyla goes missing that Darwin even agrees to have Max's place searched - with horrifying results ...

Being in equal parts serialkiller flick and character study, Chasing Shadows is one of these movies that gets it right, focusing its story not merely on the fight of good vs evil (or at least right vs wrong) but going deep into the (broken) mind of who's supposed to be the hero, coming up with some disturbing facts in the process - and that's where Chasing Shadows really gets its tension from, from veering off the usual thriller route and showing the whole gritty picture, warts and all, a narrative approach that's pretty much mirrored in the directorial effort that refuses to gloss over things, and a strong cast really round things out to make this a very strong and unusual piece of genre cinema.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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