This film takes place within a dismal future, where for reasons unknown the world has fallen into a state of darkness. The word darkness is used to mean the literal sense as there is very little light, but also to describe the way people have become inside, which can be quite dark as we soon learn. You see, Fisher was a police officer and now with the help of his mentor, he plans on solving a string of brutal murders. He has been gone for well over a decade, but with his mentor's assistance via a book he was written, Fisher hopes to have some luck. This book is titled The Element Of Crime and Fisher will use it to track down his suspect, which won't be easy by any means.
Some films just seem to unusual for no reason, as if being strange just for the sake of being so.
And since these films gather audiences, I suppose there is a market for that type of cinema. But then some films are unusual and work, such The Element Of Crime and many other films by Lars Von Trier. This film has all the elements like darkness, intense visuals, and strange characters, but when placed inside Von Trier's film world, they all work together to create one large picture that flat out rocks. I can watch this movie over and again, each time picking some small detail I've missed before and few films can boast that. And these small details aren't always superficial either, some of them can unlock some of the story's meaning and depth.