In 1988, Philadelphia police officer Thomas Lockhart (Boyd Holbrook), hungry to become a detective, begins tracking a serial killer who mysteriously resurfaces every nine years. But when the killer's crimes begin to defy all scientific explanation, Locke's obsession with finding the truth threatens to destroy his career, his family, and possibly his sanity.... (Full plot summary below)
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In 1988, Philadelphia police officer Thomas Lockhart (Boyd Holbrook), hungry to become a detective, begins tracking a serial killer who mysteriously resurfaces every nine years. But when the killer's crimes begin to defy all scientific explanation, Locke's obsession with finding the truth threatens to destroy his career, his family, and possibly his sanity.
Leave your thoughts about In the Shadow of the Moon.
| Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayThis is an appealingly polished thriller, with something modest but profound to say about how selfish choices can ripple across decades. |
| IGNChris TillyThe action is thrilling and the science fiction stuff compelling, but there are several occasions where it feels like the screenplay is talking down to its audience, most notably during its heavy-handed climax. |
| The New York TimesChris VognarThe film is never less than engaging, and it’s just about always clever. |
| The GuardianBenjamin LeeThere’s a slicker, more coherent and ultimately more thematically audacious film to be made from the disparate elements that make up In the Shadow of the Moon but what we have is a lovable mess nonetheless. Its ambitions are easy to criticise but hard not to admire, a mad little movie with big ideas on its mind. |
| RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoAn odd film like this needs a charismatic anchor in its lead role to keep it from losing its human connection and Boyd Holbrook just can’t muster the energy to do that. It’s a strangely flat, unengaging performance that doesn't match the ambition of the overall piece. |
| The A.V. ClubKatie RifeIn The Shadow Of The Moon is a disappointing misfire all around, but no matter—like so many other Netflix original films, it’ll be reabsorbed into the streaming void soon enough. |
| VarietyOwen GleibermanThe dedicated entertainment junkie now has more options than ever before. So if you’re wondering which logy, derivative, visually pedestrian piece of made-for-Netflix pulp you should avoid at all costs this week, it would be hard to top In the Shadow of the Moon. |
| The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckIt's certainly an imaginative concept for a detective story, but the storyline gets so convoluted and baroque that unintentional humor sets in. By the time we learn the outlandish motivation of the time-traveling serial killer and her true identity, the twists have been coming so fast and furious that we've long stopped caring. |
| User ReviewCollarPretty good movie. Don't mind the white supremacists bashing it. Not a classic, but not bad either. |
| User ReviewGregnatorIn the shadow of the moon is a very interesting movie about a police officer encountering strange repeated events that he can not explain. And I wish I could say more without spoiling. It's a science fiction detective film, which blows the viewer away. Unfortunately one of the major plot twists is predictable. Around halfway through the movie I had a theory and I was right about it. Even though the twist is kind of expected, the movie does make you question about right and wrong. In the end I disagreed with the overall message, but I found it a great film that does make you think about it. I give it an 8 as it was a well directed solid movie, good acting all the way, but the predictable twist knocks the score from a 9 to an 8. It's a good movie all in all. No sequels needed, no hints to sequels. Just a good solid movie, like they used to make them. |
