TV REVIEW : CBS’ ‘Company of Darkness’ Moody, Murky

Helen Hunt plays a small-town cop who goes undercover to trap a suspected killer of young boys in the psychological drama “In the Company of Darkness” (at 9 tonight on Channels 2 and 8).

Much like the Jodie Foster character in “Silence of the Lambs,” Hunt’s assignment begins to have a dangerous reality of its own as she winds up posing as the murderer’s girlfriend.

Her quarry is effectively played with a creepy, sicko veneer by Steven Weber (of “Wings”), and Jeff Fahey is likable as her nervous fellow officer and lover--in a charged-up romance that also must remain undercover.

The movie, from a teleplay by supervising producer John Leekley, offers dual roles to Hunt, first as an emotionless cop and then, in a ruse to coax a confession from the killer, as a tough waitress with a sociopathic past.

Director David Anspaugh creates some moody suspense in scenes between Hunt and Weber, but the movie’s psychological underpinning is murky.