Cold in July

Cold in July (2014) is Jim Mickle's tense Texas thriller, and you can watch it online on iFILM. One sweltering night in 1989, a mild-mannered family man shoots a burglar dead in his living room and watches his quiet life come apart.

Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) runs a small frame shop and has never hurt anyone in his life. The town treats him like a hero, but the calm doesn't last. The dead man's father, ex-convict Ben Russell (Sam Shepard), drifts into town looking to settle the score. Then the plot lurches somewhere you won't see coming, and a flamboyant pig-farming private eye named Jim Bob (Don Johnson) starts pulling threads loose.

Adapted from Joe R. Lansdale's novel, the film opens as a revenge story and curdles into a brutal neo-noir about buried secrets. Hall, Shepard and Johnson make an odd, electric trio, while a pulsing synth score nods straight at John Carpenter. This one is for viewers who like a genre that keeps double-crossing them. Stream Cold in July (2014) online on iFILM.