‘The screams of the victim deaden his pain…’
There were three psychological thrillers about serial killers released in the ’90s that defined the decade. The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Basic Instinct (1992) and Seven (1995) loom large over every other crime thriller released in that era. Copycat arrived three weeks before Seven in 1995, and while it will always play second fiddle to its more illustrious cousin, Jon Amiel’s film is still criminally underrated…
Criminal psychologist, Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver), is coaxed out of self-imposed retirement by plucky detective, Inspector M.J. Monahan (Holly Hunter), following the onset of a killing spree in which all the murders echo famous serial killers from the past (The Hillside Strangler, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy etc). The supporting cast includes Dermot Mulroney, Harry Connick Jr. and Will Patton.
Featuring a career-best performance from Weaver, and an equally compelling turn from Hunter, Copycat is unusual as a female-centred crime thriller in which the women serve as more than simply meat for the grinder. While Weaver is terrorised in the opening scenes of the film, her character is nuanced and layered and offers the audience a different perspective on an actor who made a career out of playing badass women. It was Amiel who wisely made the decision to change Hunter’s character from a man to a woman (thus disposing of what would have undoubtedly been a tiresome romantic subplot), and this fearlessness results in a truly top notch psychological thriller that now serves as an underrated gem having been overshadowed by some of the more salacious films of the era.
Shot on location in San Francisco, (as with Hitchcock and Vertigo), Amiel liked the idea of “contrasting a physically beautiful city with horrendously cruel human events”, Copycat is vulgar when it wants to be, but it’s also smart and meditative at times, and never threatens to be anything but compelling. Of all the many psychological thrillers released in the ’90s, I would say this is the one most deserving of an Indian summer.
