A serial killer brutally slays and dismembers several gay men in New York's S&M and leather districts. The young police officer Steve Burns is sent undercover onto the streets as a decoy for the murderer. Working almost completely isolated from his department, he has to learn and practice the complex rules and signals of this little society.
Its gamy images inside the leather and S&M gay bars along the Greenwich Village waterfront are both busy and dark.
– Jack Mathews,
New York Daily News,
7 Sep 2007
rotten:
Taking away the kissing, caressing and a few bloody killings, Friedkin has no story, though picture pretends to be a murder mystery combined with a study of Al Pacino's psychological degradation.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
26 Mar 2009
rotten:
What's left is the framework for a graphic, brutal, sickening film, without the violent effects that might have made sense (however illegitimate) out of the conception.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
9 Jun 2014
rotten:
This detective melodrama has something to offend almost everyone.
– Frank Rich,
TIME Magazine,
9 Jun 2014
rotten:
What we're left with is a movie without the courage to declare itself.