The Cold Light of Day

 (1996) ****

Detective Victor Marek is investigating a horrendous child murderer who has just taken his third victim. Marek's boss Pavel Nowak is up for reelection so is more interesting in resolving then actually solving the case so he coerces the stoner who found the last victim’s body into confessing to all three crimes. The confessed man then hangs himself in his cell after which Marek, outraged with his bosses behavior quits his job and decides to catch the killer himself. He befriends a single woman and her daughter intending to use the little girl to bait the killer in.

 Richard Grant, plays the wide-eyed Victor Marek who is emotionally tearing himself to shreds throughout the film. He knows that using this girl as bait is so very wrong but at the same time he feels he can protect her, he is completely obsessed with finding this killer. He keeps the girl and her mother in the dark about it so we can’t really sympathize with him all that much, what he is doing puts that little girl smack in the face of danger and its nerve-racking.

 The killer himself is really creepy. He lures the girls in with a little doggie puppet, plays tag with them and gives them red licorice strings. It’s really unsettling watching him in action, gaining her trust then going to the store to purchase the doll that will essentially become the girl for him once she is dead. Oh, didn’t I mention that keeps life-sized dolls dressed in his victim’s clothes and pretends like they are all friends just hanging out.

I really liked the film, it held my utmost attention throughout and that is saying a lot at this point in the game. An intriguing approach to an uncomfortable subject.