The Hawk

Annie Marsh (Mirren) fears her husband (Costigan) may be the serial killer whom the media have dubbed 'The Hawk'. But is the father of her children - a roving service engineer - capable of bludgeoning women to death and gouging out their eyes? Hayman's low-key direction of Peter Ransley's script (from his own novel) and Andrew Dunn's moody urban photography work well in developing Mirren's escalating paranoia. But with so much of the detail taken directly from the Yorkshire Ripper case, it seems absurd and disorienting when, in a departure from both real and fictional sources, Annie finally finds the strength to turn the tables on her husband.