james wood delivers a sensationally intense and wired and rivet performance a shrewd and sleazy and blithely amoral maverick loose cannon detective lloyd hopkins and who obsessively investigate a series of vicious homicide that have be go on for fifteen year . lloyd pursuit of the serial killer put his job on the line and push him over the edge . tightly write and direct by james b. harris ( who previously work with wood on the outstanding prison movie fast walk ) and with crisp cinematography by steve dubin and a harsh and gritty tone and unflinchingly raw and profane dialogue and a jazzy and shivery score by michel colombier and a tense and exciting climactic showdown between hopkins and the killer and some seriously ugly violence ( the murder site be truly nasty ) and and a shockingly brutal and nihilistic end and this bang up little sleeper make for an extremely gripping and suspenseful view experience . wood effortlessly carry the picture with his usual arrest blend of live wire energy and hard boil charisma . the support cast be likewise on the money excellent represent charles durning a lloyd loyal and protective partner dutch peltz and lesley ann warren a a touchy feminist poet and charles haid a corrupt deputy sheriff delbert whitey haines and raymond j. barry a stern and no nonsense captain fred gaffney and randi brook a brassy hooker and drug dealer joanie pratt and steven lambert a the killer and and jan mcgill a lloyd feed up wife jen . a worthy 80 noir thriller winner .