By Jay Betsill

“Traces of Red” begins with star Jim Belushi narrating his own crime scene and by that, I mean he is the victim, having just been shot in the chest. His narration claims “a homicide detective has been shot, you may hear about it on the news, but nothing is what it seems here” and that is where the fun gets underway.

Belushi stars as Jack Dobson, a Palm Beach homicide detective on the trail of a serial killer with the dead women with lipstick traces of a specific shade of red.

Jack’s brother Michael (William Russ) is busy running for office while Jack and his partner are milling about the wealthy South Florida enclave.

Jack is a bit of a ladies man, as we are introduced to him picking up a waitress named Morgan in nice restaurant during a diner celebrating his brother’s campaign and the next day he is in bed with his high society lover Ellen Schofield, played by Lorraine Bracco (Good Fellas, The Sopranos).

Meanwhile, Morgan is murdered and there is a long list of suspects with Jack not knowing whether he can trust Ellen or his partner Steve (Tony Goldwyn, best known from his work in Ghost and Scandal).

Taken for what it is, an early 90s thriller, “Traces of Red” is a fun movie with a myriad of twists and just as think you have it figured out, there is another ‘out of nowhere’ turn.

If “Traces of Red” was made in current times, it would probably be a 6-8 episode series on Netflix or Amazon Prime with each of its sudden turns featured as a cliffhanger ending of an episode and modern technology adding a multitude of layers to the story’s twists.

“Traces of Red” is currently streaming on tubi.

TRACES OF RED (Rated R)
Scale of 1-10 – 6 1/2