Crescent City

Crescent City, a 2024 R-rated crime thriller directed by R. J. Collins with screenplay by Rich Ronat, follows the investigation of a serial killer. The movie stars Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard as Brian Sutter, a veteran cop and devout Christian, and Esai Morales as Luke Carson, Brian’s hot-headed, womanizing partner. The movie, which is set in a small southern city, was filmed entirely in and around the Little Rock (Pulaski County) area and features frequent wide shots of the city as well as landmarks including the Arkansas River and the Arkansas State Capitol. It is unclear why it is called Crescent City.

The movie begins with a man arriving at an unidentified house to rendezvous with a stranger. The interior of the home is crowded, with multiple mannequins placed in every room. He then discovers a note instructing him to drink a cocktail while he waits for his date by the indoor pool. Shortly after taking the prepared drink, his vision blurs, and he is approached by a woman who slices his throat from behind. The next day, Brian attends a church service with his wife and young daughter, where he hallucinates a teenage boy in a red hoodie staring at him from another pew. Later in the church bathroom, he notices graffiti advertising Secrets 666 written on the wall. After attempting to wipe it off, he goes to the church lobby, where he is approached by Marcy, a member of the church whose husband, Ricky, is missing. Brian assures her that while they have not heard anything, the police are actively investigating his case. Later that day, he receives a call from the station to a crime scene. At the scene, Brian and Luke find a man’s decapitated body in a car next to a mannequin head with a phone in the passenger seat. Later, the partners take Marcy to the morgue, where she identifies her husband as the dead man.

At the police station, Brian, Luke, and Police Captain Howell (played by Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin) interview Marcy about her husband’s activities to locate the killer. Luke suggests that Ricky was having an affair, which Marcy profusely denies. After questioning, Brian and Luke look through the phone found at the scene and discover that Ricky was active on Secrets 666, an adult content forum. They are called into Captain Howell’s office, where he tells them that he has assigned a new officer, Jaclyn Waters (played by Nicky Whelan), to help them with their case. Despite the pair’s apprehension, they take her along to investigate. They return to the church to ask Pastor Lawson (played by Michael Sirow) whether he had any information on the case or knowledge about Secrets 666, to which the pastor claims ignorance. Afterward, they are approached by a woman who admits that her roommate had used the chat website before she went missing. While following her roommate’s location from her phone, the three learn that the woman went missing after leaving the 1836 Club with a stranger. They arrive at an empty house, where they find the missing woman’s body next to another mannequin’s head. At the scene, Jaclyn receives information that the property was owned by a man named Robert Hedges, who was also found dead at the home years prior. The prime suspect in his murder, his son Charlie Hedges, has been missing ever since. After this, the three cops decide the best way to get closer to finding the killer is to use Jaclyn as bait using a fake profile on Secrets 666 to meet up with suspects.

Alongside this investigation, another case is called into question. Sometime prior to the events of Crescent City, Brian and Luke were involved in a drug bust gone wrong that ended with the unexplained disappearance of a large sum of money and the death of a teenage boy. The case haunts Brian through frequent dreams and flashbacks that slowly become more detailed throughout the film as his memory resurfaces and becomes intertwined with the serial murder investigation. Additionally, it is revealed that Brian and Jaclyn have been having an extramarital affair, challenging Brian’s reputation as an honest family man. Through the narrative, Crescent City attempts to explore themes of carnal desire, deception, and resentment as Brian, Luke, and Jaclyn begin to suspect each other while more bodies appear and possible motives come to light.

Crescent City was distributed with limited theatrical showings by Lionsgate on August 16, 2024. The film has neutral to negative views, often described by critics as mundane with overplayed character tropes. In Variety, Joe Leydon writes that, despite a star-studded cast, the film’s multiple twists imply “scads of day-to-day rewrites” and that “blockbuster store shelves used to be overburdened to the point of near collapse with unremarkable trifles such as this.”

For additional information:
“Crescent City.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18884172/ (accessed June 29, 2026).

“Crescent City.” Rotten Tomatoes. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/crescent_city_2024 (accessed June 29, 2026).

Leydon, Joe. “‘Crescent City’ Review: Overplotted Thriller Sustains Interest Primarily with Yeoman Performances by Well-Cast Leads.” Variety, August 16, 2025. https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/crescent-city-review-1236108404/ (accessed June 29, 2026).

Starr M. Carr
CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas