It belongs on the list of generic titles along with "Guns of Darkness," "Another Dawn," "On The Edge," "No Way Out," "The Big Mistake," "In The Middle", and "Kiss My Beluga." There is a scene in which Williams' detective pushes too much on the case and is made to hand over his badge and gun to his boss. Even the title, "In The Shadow of Evil," is routine. It's certainly not in this formulaic movie. She's slow and deliberate in everything she does and says, and she combines strength with sex appeal. She resembles Elizabeth Perkins but is more earthy in looks and demeanor. Margaret Colin is splendid as the doc who finally yields to her patient's charm. He was fine as the tormented squealer in "Prince of the City," but lacks something as an obsessed detective.
It suits him for secondary roles or for leads that are filled with uncertainty and self doubt. Treat Williams isn't a bad actor but his performances seem to be knee-capped by a high, weak voice. In this movie, the PATHOLOGIST'S ROOM is dark! All style and little substance or, to put it another way, plenty of heat but no light. For a period of about ten years, every crime story ever filmed imitated its visual style, which was characterized by lots of darkness punctuated by a couple of roving flashlight beams. This movie was released in 1995 and "The X Files" first aired two years earlier.
You'll figure out who the killer is long before the Big Reveal. And this is no more than a routine example of the genre. If there were as many of them running about as the movies would have us believe, they'd be organized and they'd have annual conventions in places like Palm Beach and Aspen. There are now more movies about serial killers than there are serial killers. But serial-killer movies are a genre unto themselves.
But the deliberate murder of complete strangers has a preposterous quality. That person is someone who's opinion we care about, who's in a position to hurt us. We can understand murdering someone you love. The story itself is interesting, in the way that all serial-killer movies are interesting.
The performances are at least up to expected professional levels and the direction is competent. He tries to put it all back together again with the help of the sympathetic doctor, Margaret Colin. There are the usual intermittent black-and-white flashbacks lasting a second or two, but otherwise Williams' memory of the case is ablated. But in pursuit of a suspect Williams bonks his head and loses his memory. The killer seems to know a bit about police procedure and Williams suspects the pathologist, William Macy. Hot-shot detective Treat Williams is hard on his trail. Another serial killer, called The Roper, is hard at work.
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