Crime movies are a captivating genre because they are the perfect holdall; a crime thriller can be altogether suspenseful and grotesque and profound, a reflection of our dual humanity. It is in this spirit that Ami Canaan Mann (Morning, Friday Night Lights) helmed Texas Killing Fields, which is available on Blu-ray and DVD beginning January 31st, and is the director's follow-up feature film after more than a decade of writing and directing for TV.

The seedling for the script is found in Texas City, the outskirts of which harbor a massive, haunting field with a macabre history. Over sixty murders were dumped within this region, known by locals as the Killing Fields and it was from this that director/producer Michael Mann (Thief, Heat) was inspired to commission a script. Like a lot of movies in Hollywood, it took years for all the right particles to come together and greenlight a story into creation but when it finally did, the story succeeded in its director’s aim to do three important things: do right by the families of the real victims, put a face to the victims of sexual assault murders, and to evoke the horror of the story in a sophisticated, non-procedural manner.

To achieve all that, Texas Killing Fields makes use of the genre’s elasticity. On the one hand, you have the high-stakes plot: the story focuses on two detectives, committed to finding the culprit of a murder that had been dumped in the field, who end up having to race the clock in order to save the life of another potential Killing Field victim, played by Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass). Sam Worthington (Avatar) plays Detective Mike Souder, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) plays his partner, Brian Heigh, and Jessica Chastain (The Help) plays the former-Mrs.-Souder, Detective Pam Stall.