Scott Garfield/Netflix
Atmosphere goes a long way in The Pale Blue Eye, a 19th-century serial-killer thriller about a murder investigation at West Point.
Working with accomplished cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, writer/director Scott Cooper (Antlers) drenches his action in icy blues, flickering yellow candlelight, and frosty gray mist that radiates a malevolent chill. That frigid air is made all the more portentous by Howard Shore’s ominous orchestral score and a soundscape of snow crunching beneath boots, wind whistling through trees, and water dripping from sodden wood. A Hudson Valley, New York period piece with a distinctly Sleepy Hollow-ish vibe, it’s a film that, on an aesthetic level, casts an eerie spell.
Shame about its story, though.