Film

In the Shadow of the Moon

Name: In the Shadow of the Moon
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller
Released: 2019
Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, Michael C. Hall, Bokeem Woodbine, Sarah Dugdale

Other titles called In the Shadow of the Moon: the 2007 film.

A time-bending serial killer thriller that uses a nine-year gap to ask what obsession costs. Boyd Holbrook's detective chases logic-defying crimes across decades, watching his life crack under the weight of pursuit. Twisty, moody, and genuinely strange—for viewers who like their sci-fi mixed into crime procedural and don't need easy answers.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-burning detective stories where the mystery is about time and memory as much as the culprit, and where a cop's obsession slowly eats into his private life.

Skip it if you want the genre's usual rhythm of clues and confrontations, since this one lingers on dread and dislocation and often stalls the chase to sit with its unsettling ideas.

What it asks of you: Expect a little under two hours of patient, murky buildup, with the tension rising through atmosphere and unease rather than through quick cuts or big set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Zodiac2007

Fincher's meticulous obsession-porn about a detective hunting an uncatchable killer. Both films treat the case as a slow descent into madness that destroys the hunter more than the hunted.

But Three hours of men staring at photos and whiteboards. If you need immediate payoff or dislike ambiguity, this will frustrate you.

Memento2000

Christopher Nolan's reverse-narrative thriller about a man chasing a killer while his mind plays tricks. Like Shadow of the Moon, it weaponizes time and questions what you can trust about what you've seen.

But The backwards structure is clever but it can feel like gimmickry if you're not invested. Rewatching is almost mandatory to understand what happened.

Prisoners2013

Villeneuve's brutal cat-and-mouse between a detective and a desperate father. Both films understand that the pursuit of truth can poison everyone it touches, guilty and innocent alike.

But Genuinely harrowing and not always for the right reasons. Long, dark, and it sits with you in ways that can feel unpleasant rather than cathartic.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from In the Shadow of the Moon

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Twelve Monkeys1995

Time as weapon and prison rather than plot device; obsession with pursuing the unpursuable across temporal ruptures; the possibility that the investigator is the threat.

Gilliam's time-fractturing thriller about a prisoner sent back to prevent apocalypse, pursued by institutional forces. Both films ask: if time is broken, how do you catch truth? Both suggest you might be mad instead.

But Visually dense and narratively chaotic. The plot resists linear summary. Some will find it brilliant; others will feel aggressively unmoored.

The Silence of the Lambs1991

The template: obsessive detective versus killer, psychological cat-and-mouse, the investigator's sanity as much at stake as the case. Utterly gripping and endlessly rewatchable.

But If you've seen it, you know the beats. Watching it fresh requires an unlikely void in modern film culture. It dominates every scene it's in.

Dark2017

German sci-fi series where time itself is the killer. Like Shadow of the Moon, it treats temporal weirdness as genuinely unsettling and asks whether understanding the pattern saves you or dooms you.

But Dense mythology that demands attention and note-taking. If you binge it, you'll lose track of who exists when. Subtitles required.

Brick2006

High-school noir where a detective hunts a killer through a world that doesn't follow normal rules. Same sideways approach to genre: crime procedural that's also something stranger.

But The stylization can read as affected. Rian Johnson's first film shows his tics before he learned to balance them with genuine stakes.

Insomnia2002

Pacino's Alaskan detective hunts a killer while sleepless in endless daylight, his mind deteriorating. Nolan's remake understands exhaustion as a weapon that destroys pursuit from within.

But Less innovative than its source material. Pacino's performance is immense but the film around it is smaller than it should be.

The Machinist2004

Christian Bale's insomniac factory worker unravels while chasing a mystery. Obsession and temporal distortion wreck a protagonist from the inside; same territory, different texture.

But Deliberately unpleasant watching. The thinness of Bale's body is the point but it's grotesque. Demands endurance.

Primer2004

Time travel as a puzzle that breaks the mind rather than saves the day; obsession with solving an unsolvable system; the investigator's knowledge becomes their liability.

Shane Carruth's impenetrable time-travel thriller about engineers who accidentally build a time machine and descend into paranoia. Wildly intelligent sci-fi that trusts the viewer to fail at understanding and rewards rewatching.

But Genuinely incomprehensible on first viewing. Audio is sometimes inaudible. The film operates at a level of abstraction that can feel hostile rather than challenging.

Arrival2016

Time as the true antagonist; language and understanding as the gateway to non-linear experience; grief and obsession as the same emotional frequency.

Denis Villeneuve's first-contact film where a linguist decodes an alien language and discovers time itself works differently. Same premise: understanding something fundamentally alters your relationship to causality and obsession.

But Emotional and meditative rather than thrilling. If you came for aliens-attack spectacle, you'll be disappointed. The payoff is intimate rather than explosive.