Review of Copycat (1995) by Allan C — 17 Jan 2015

This film came out during the 90s serial killer film craze (i.e. "Kiss the Girls," "Kalifornia," "The Bone Collector" etc.) and I think has been somewhat unfairly forgotten.

Like most of the serial killer films of the time, it's a far fetched story (a serial killer obsessed with a profiler begins recreating the murders by various killers), but the film is executed so well and has such a classy cast, it's hard to resist.

Sigourney Weaver plays the profilers who's been traumatized by an attack by demented killer Harry Connick Jr. and who is now agoraphobic. Connick plays a a "Manhunter" Hannibal Lecter-like character who is in prison the entire film.

Holly Hunter is a real standout though in the film as a detective investigating a new set of murders. Hunter is consistently awesome in all her films, but I think this was the only film where she played kind of a tough and sexy characters.

It's kind of novel to have Hunter playing a badass cop in a short skirt and she is awesome at it! Dermot Mulroney plays her partner and J.E. Freeman plays her superiors and manages to avoid a lot of the police captain cliches.

The film also features William McNamara and Will Patton. Christopher Young provides a suspenseful and exciting score. László Kovács also provides some crisp photography and director Jon Amiel delivers some effectively suspenseful scenes.

Overall, this is a film that deserves revisiting.