Wow, what a weird film. The story for
this bizarre, gothic, dark tale, revolves around a man named John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes to find himself
in a hotel room with a dead body, but has no memory of who he is or how he got there. To further add to his confusion,
he then gets a telephone call from someone claiming to be his doctor, warning him to leave quickly as there are people
after him.
Unable to fathom out what's going on, he exits the building only to find that everyone around him appears to be asleep, only to wake up a few minutes later as though nothing has happened. As he staggers through the night, struggling to understand what's happening around him, or even who he really is, he then finds that he is being pursued, not only by the police, but by a bunch of strange looking people wearing dark clothing who appear to have strange powers. But what do they want with him?
It seems the detective in charge, inspector Bumstead (William Hurt) is also becoming aware that something is very wrong, and that John is no killer. But who are these strange shadowy characters and why are they after John? Aided by his doctor (played by Keifer Sutherland), they, along with the detective and a woman that claims to be his wife (Jennifer Connolly) sets out to uncover the truth about John, the city and why it always seems to be night time there...
This is undoubtedly a very strange film, kind of like a film noir version of The Matrix, but set in Gotham city. As the buildings all have strange architecture, the place seems bathed in perpetual darkness and it looks like its meant to be set in the 1950s, judging by the old fashioned vehicles and police uniforms, but you can tell that something isn't right about the world they live in.
It was also kind of weird seeing the guy who created the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Richard O'Brien, and the Gyro Captain from Mad Max 2 in this playing bad guys.
Not strictly a horror film as such, this was by the same director who did "The Crow" and is shot in the same, dark, visual style. However, this is the sort of film where you really do need to pay attention to what's going on, or you might find it a bit confusing, particularly near the end. But if you like Gothic sci-fi thrillers, or you enjoyed the original "Crow" film, then you should like this.
