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Despite a stylish sheen by director E. Elias Merhige, Suspect Zero is just one more example of an oversaturated genre.
A serial killer is on the loose and only one FBI agent in all the land can catch him. Of course, the killer has handpicked the agent, and even sends messages and clues to him.
Aaron Eckhart is Mackelway, the FBI man banished to Albuquerque. Soon his expertise is needed to track a sadistic lunatic, O'Ryan (Ben Kingsley). Mackelway's former partner and ex-lover Fran Kulok (Carrie-Anne Moss) inexplicably shows up to help. Also key is an FBI profiling unit that trained its agents to "see" murderers and victims miles away.
Merhige gets plenty of mileage out of these visions and the creepy, metallic sound design and score, almost managing to snuff out the film's more ordinary attributes. But, the overall effect can be strangely unpleasant. Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire took its idea—that the star of the silent vampire classic Nosferatu was a real vampire—and wound it around and around, making it tighter and surprising. With Suspect Zero, the payoff leaves us no more or less thrilled than when we began.