Copycat

Greetings, ‘Copycat’ is a psychological thriller from 1995 that was directed by British director Jon Amiel. Jon has directed several movies during his career, including ‘The Core’ and ‘Creation’ in the 2000s, but has more experience working on television series such as BAFTA nominated ‘The Singing Detective’ all the way back in 1986. The cast of ‘Copycat’ consists of some boast worthy names with ‘Alien’ icon Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter, primarily known to younger generations for her voice role in ‘The Incredibles’, as the two female leads. Dermot Mulroney, William McNamara and Harry Connick Jr are also among the principal stars while J.E. Freeman and Will Patton serve as more secondary characters. The score was composed by Christopher Young who had collaborated with Amiel on numerous productions such as the aforementioned movies. Young has been involved in the film scene for a number of decades, contributing also to the soundtracks of ‘Hellraiser’ and Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ movies to name a few of his considerable works.

The story begins with renowned psychologist Dr Helen Hudson delivering a guest talk to a sea of students in a university lecture room. Helen’s expertise is on the minds and methods of serial killers. As she gives her lecture, she briefly thinks she sees the face of a former subject of hers sitting in attendance but she shrugs it off as the product of a hyperactive imagination. Although a little shaken by the unnerving thought, Helen finishes her speech and is escorted under police protection to the women’s restroom. A police officer is in the room with her and watching over her until she closes her cubical while another cop remains in a nearby hallway. There is a commotion in the restrooms and Helen’s privacy is violently breeched when she discovers that her former subject, Daryll, had broken out of prison and really had been intermingled with the crowd. To her dismay, Helen discovers that the guard in the bathroom had also been killed. With no one seemingly around to save her, Daryll attacks Helen and begins to lynch her with a cable by raising her into the air by her throat. Help does arrive as the other police officer hears the disturbance and subdues Daryll before rescuing the chocking Helen from her deadly ordeal.

Some months after the attack, the once tenacious Helen has been reduced to a quivering wreck who needs to shut herself in her hi-tech apartment to get by. With Helen now deeply agoraphobic and unable to leave her room without mentally breaking down, she lives her life with the help of her gay best friend Andy as well as relying on the internet to communicate to the outside world. A local murder occurs that threatens this fragile sense of security she has built for herself. The first victim was killed in a similar matter to an infamous case that took place in the 1960s which Helen was very knowledgeable on. Inspectors Mary Jane Monahan and Ruben Goetz are assigned to the job and eventually convince a reluctant Helen to help them in their investigations as her insight would be invaluable to solving the case. It isn’t long before a new body is found in a different crime scene that is reminiscent of yet another previous and well publicised murder. With the bodies stacking up, Helen is convinced that they are the nasty works of the same person. She believes that there is a copycat killer on the loose who is emulating and re-enacting historical murders. It’s up to her to crack the case before another innocent loses their life.

Asides from a few pivotal scenes I knew of beforehand, I wasn’t overly familiar with ‘Copycat’ but I knew I was going to enjoy it very early on in the film. Weaver and Hunter do a terrific job in their roles with the former nailing both the confident professional in the beginning and a frightened victim later on struggling to cope with her trauma. Holly’s character of Mary is also very three dimensional, showing both strong headedness and vulnerability as the story progresses. ‘Copycat’ is a tense thriller which is excellently paced and it doesn’t drag at any point in my opinion during its two hour run time. Basing the restaged murders on non-fictional killings was an intriguing idea and added to the gritty realism of it. This movie isn’t particularly at the forefront of pop culture these days but it is certainly worth a watch if you are in a more macabre mood and wanted a compelling watch.

Plot=9/10

Characters=9/10

Special Effects=9/10

Overall=9/10

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