Surrounded by Fargoesque snow and wearing a Fargoesque furry hat, Susan Sarandon is rather preposterously cast as a cop on the trail of a serial killer in snowy Canada. She is doing the wide and slightly imperious Sarandon stare, as if she is not used to contact lenses. This movie may be enjoyed by The Simpsons fans who remember the episode in which Lisa goes to see a horror film called The Redeadening, which she nervously tells herself is “only a movie – filmed in Vancouver – with Donald Sutherland as the priest who stopped believing”. This film features Sutherland playing a priest who … well, anyway.
Sarandon is detective Hazel Micallef, an alcoholic addicted to painkillers and professional screw-up who has a shot at redemption when she realises she can take down a ritualistic murderer whose crimes have a sinister biblical slant. It’s all quite ridiculous but it has some creepy scenes, and nice support from Gil Bellows and Topher Grace as Hazel’s permanently bemused colleagues.
