Copycat (1995)

Dir Jon Amiel

Written by Ann Biderman, David Madsen

Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, William McNamara, Harry Connick Jr, J.E. Freeman, Will Patton, John Rothman.

San Francisco is being plagued by potential serial killer. Partnered Investigators, the senior MJ Monahan (Hunter), and the junior Ruben Goetz (Mulroney) are the leads on the case. When a Psychiatrist Dr Helen Hudson (Weaver) calls them to try to give them information, they ask her to assist on the case as she is a leading expert on serial killers, However Helen has been housebound for over a year, as she was attacked by Darrell Lee Cullen (Connick Jr) which almost left her dead.

As the body count rises, they begin to piece together this new killers MO, he is copying famous killers from the past. Will he be able to finish his master plan, and possibly do what Darrell Lee couldn’t.

The cinematography is well done, especially at the times that Helen is suffering from moments of her agoraphobia. The halucienagenic effect that the camera does, almost feels like we too are in Helen’s panic attack state. There is some impressive 360° work too towards the climax.

It was refreshing to see how progressive the film is too, especially in 1995 having such strong female leads. Hunter had recently won her Oscar for The Piano, and Weaver is no stranger to being a strong female lead, having done so almost 20 years previously.

The screenplay is strong, but the pacing is a little off as it does feel like it was possibly dragging in the second act, especially since the killer is revealed so early into the film. Had they held this off and added a ‘red herring’ type situation, this would have made the ‘incident’ in the second act even more jarring.

There is a eerie score by Christopher Young that is present throughout, and it complements the tone of the film nicely.

I really enjoyed this film this time around. It had been quite a while since I last saw it. It has aged very well, and could almost be set today, albeit with some technology improvements that we have today.

High recommended to check out.

4/5