Fisher remembers that he was hired by the police chief Kramer to pursue a serial killer called the "Lotto Murderer", who was strangling and then mutilating young girls who were selling lottery tickets.

He attempts to track down the killer using the controversial methods outlined in a book entitled The Element of Crime, written by his disgraced mentor, Osborne.

[4] Because sodium lamps produce light in only a few narrow emission peaks, rather than over a wide spectrum, the film has an almost monochrome appearance.

Examples include white paper, light bulbs, heaps of keys, surgical scissors, glass bottles, rubber stamps, and Coca-Cola cans.

The film's slow pace, dark visuals and occasional surreal imagery give it a dreamlike quality.

[8] Peter Cowie, in 2000, writes that "The Element of Crime heralded a new voice in film.... No film made by Lars von Trier is quite so mesmeric as this debut.... this expressionist ritual could have been made by Murnau, Lang, Pabst or any of the masters of German silent cinema" and concludes "The Element of Crime undoubtedly proclaimed a talent as unusual and compelling as any to emerge from Northern Europe since World War II.

In 2023, Criterion released a 3K restoration of the film as part of the Blu-ray box set, Lars von Trier's Europe Trilogy.