FILM REVIEW: A brutal darkness reigns

When they are not hacking kidnapped women into tiny pieces, the two serial killers in A Walk Among the Tombstones enjoy watching films hired from a "basement where they keep some of the more specialised stuff".

There are moments in this sadistic thriller, starring Liam Neeson, that are so depraved that I wondered whether it, too, should be kept from public view.

Scott Frank's adaptation of Lawrence Block's novel of the same name is, at times, horrifically, pointlessly violent.

Neeson is on autopilot as Matt Scudder, an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic who now works in New York as an unlicensed private investigator. When prominent drug trafficker Kenny Kristo (a woefully underused Dan Stevens) hires Scudder to track down the men who murdered his wife, it soon becomes apparent that this crime is linked to a series of other grisly murders in the city.

For what it is worth, I usually quite like Neeson on autopilot. He is self-aware and humorous as an off-the-production-line maverick in the Taken series and in his latest thriller, Non-Stop.

Here, though, a brutal darkness reigns - a child has her fingers cut off; a killer fastidiously cleans his tools in a torture chamber; Stevens grows a moustache. And what is the point of all this nastiness? Well, of course, there is none. But who cares? Look. One serial killer is strangling the other with a cheesewire.

The film is not a total disaster. There is a captivating, unsettling climax and some impressive supporting performances. Boyd Holbrook, cast as Kristo's brother, is convincing as a hopelessly dependent drug addict, and Brian Bradley offers welcome levity as TJ, a cocky, homeless boy keen to assist in the investigation - although it did strike me as odd that a private investigator would allow an untrained boy to accompany him to meet New York's sickest serial killers.

Throughout the film, we see Scudder attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, in which he explains that he gave up drinking because it "wasn't as much fun" after a tragic accident. Following this latest effort, it might just be time for us to give up on this stage of Neeson's career - and for exactly the same reason.