When a series of murders occurs, beginning with the brutal killing of a middle aged nurse found stabbed to death with an ungodly amount of syringes, the cops are called in to get to work on the case. Lead by Detective Buckley (Lauren Holly), they search for clues and ascertain that the killer may have been someone close as he wasn't in any hurry while doing his work, in fact, he took his time and seemed to enjoy it.

One thing that the cops don't pick up on though is the fact that the victim's brother, a tracker from the barrens of Alaska (Robert Patrick) has been following them during the entire investigation, hoping to be able to find out some information that will allow him to figure things out on his own.

Sooner rather than later a few more victims appear and the police realize that they've got a serious problem on their hands in the form of a serial killer. They try and piece the puzzle together by figuring out possible motives or patterns for the killer and what the victims had in common, hoping that it will lead to a resolution.

Eventually Buckley becomes aware of the tracker and they begin to work together. But when he goes missing, it's going to be up to Buckley to use what he taught her to track him down and save him before he becomes the next victim.

Pavement is considerably better than your average made for TV movie, partially because HBO is free from the content restrictions imposed on broadcast TV but also because it has two solid actors in the lead roles. Holly and Patrick have a good chemistry here and while more often than not I find Robert Patrick rather wooden, here he shows good depth and range.

One problem with him in the male lead though is disassociating him with his character from The X-Files, especially because it wouldn't have been much of a stretch to fit the premise of this story into one of that show's episodes. The dark settings, unusual murders, and procedural investigations could have easily made for a good chapter in the series, all you're really missing are some alien conspiracies.

Regardless, Pavement does enough right that it's worth a look. There are some nice scenes of solid suspense, some creative and intriguing murders, solid characterizations, and nice camerawork that all come together to make the movie work.

Video:

Pavement is given an anamorphic 1.85.1 transfer and except for a few of the really darker scenes where some compression is noticeable, the movie looks pretty good. The color scheme of the film is quite dark, lot of grays and blacks and muted yellows and greens and the transfer brings this all to the front, keeping the mood of the film in check. Except for a few little scratches and minor blemishes, there isn't really any print damage at all and the movie looks good.