Entertainment
Netflix’s Unrated Sci-Fi Thriller Goes Absolutely Mental
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Looking for a neo-noir sci-fi thriller hinging on a time-traveling serial killer who only appears once every nine years, causing victims to bleed out of their eyes for no real rhyme or reason? I know you are, which brings me to the good news. 2019’s In the Shadow of the Moon will take you on this exact journey, and it’s an absolute trip. Think True Detective Season 1, but instead of an elite cabal of corrupt Louisiana officials operating a human trafficking ring behind closed doors, the primary antagonist is a mysterious figure who only surfaces during specific lunar cycles to go on a killing spree.
Is it an alien? A human from the future? Or is it simply a figment of our unraveling protagonist’s imagination as he becomes so obsessed with the case that he alienates everybody he once cared about, turning into a shell of a man over the course of a decades-long investigation that nobody else seems interested in solving?
It’s Happening Again …
In the Shadow of the Moon tells a time-hopping story in a progressive linear fashion, beginning in 1988 Philadelphia and concluding in 2024. We’re introduced to rookie cop Thomas Lockhart (Boyd Holbrook), heading out for his graveyard shift with his partner Maddox (Bokeem Woodbine) while leaving his very pregnant wife Jean (Rachel Keller) at home. What starts as a routine night quickly spirals when multiple victims die under the same bizarre circumstances.
Each victim bears puncture wounds, and their brains hemorrhage catastrophically, leaking from every facial orifice exactly how you’d expect. With the help of Thomas’ brother-in-law, Detective Holt (Michael C. Hall), they track down the woman they believe is responsible (Cleopatra Coleman). Before they can get answers, she jumps in front of a train, but not before telling Thomas intimate details about his life, including the fact that Jean will die during childbirth that very night.
By 1997, Thomas is a widowed detective struggling to raise his 9-year-old daughter, Amy (Quincy Kirkwood). He’s convinced the 1988 massacre was a one-off freak occurrence until the same pattern resurfaces on the nine-year anniversary. This time, the investigation expands to include a physicist named Naveen, who insists the killings are connected through time travel. Thomas, Maddox, and a now-promoted Lieutenant Holt dismiss the theory, but the nine-year cycle continues, tightening its grip on Thomas’ life.
We next see him in 2006, worse for wear after leaving the force to work as a private investigator focused solely on this case. By 2015, he’s a husk, still chasing answers while everyone else has moved on. The pattern persists, the obsession festers, and Thomas remains the only one who refuses to let it go.
If True Detective Were A Netflix Sci-Fi Original
As much as I want to root for In the Shadow of the Moon, a couple of things pulled me out of it. While this may sound nitpicky, the 1988 and 1997 sequences lack the kind of texture that really sells those eras. I’m not saying it needs to function as a full-blown period piece, but you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish the ’80s from the present day outside of the absence of smartphones, which bothered me more than it probably should have.
Minor criticism aside, In the Shadow of the Moon earns serious points for its ambitious premise and hard-boiled neo-noir vibe. The mystery is compelling enough to keep you locked in, and Boyd Holbrook’s physical portrayal of a man slowly losing everything in pursuit of answers is the selling point. Whoever handled his makeup in the later sequences deserves serious credit, because you can practically chart his decline through the lines of age etched across his face.
In the Shadow of the Moon takes familiar mystery-thriller beats, injects them with a bold sci-fi twist, and delivers a time-spanning character study that’s messy in places but undeniably intriguing. It’s currently streaming on Netflix, ready for anybody who wants their crime dramas with a side of lunar-induced chaos.