Watch the First Trailer for Child 44 Starring Tom Hardy

There have been many serial killer films before. Indeed, Tom Hardy’s co-star in this spring’s Child 44 is Noomi Rapace, who famously played an investigator of such fiends in 2010’s first (and better) film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. However, this new film adds an uncomfortable wrinkle when it sets the murder mystery in the backdrop of Stalin’s Soviet Russia—a place where murder was not accepted to exist (ironic, much?).

Based on the thrillingly lurid page-turner novel by Tom Rob Smith, this movie was a long time coming back when Ridley Scott was attached to direct. While he moved on to more biblical diversions, this narrative of a military officer in Stalin’s Soviet Union realizing there is a cover-up for a child murderer possibly makes for a searing experience. Daniel Espinosa's resume is not nearly as long as Sir Ridley’s, however Safe House was good fun, and a film led by the ever-fascinating Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, and the original Lisbeth Salander, Noomi Rapace, has us intrigued about this kid’s potential.

Child 44 opens on April 17, 2015.