Copycat
Directed by Jon Amiel
- thriller
- crime
- mystery
The story
An agoraphobic psychologist and a female detective must work together to take down a serial killer who copies serial killers from the past.
What it’s like
Cold, controlled interiors do most of the work in this 1995 thriller: a sealed apartment full of monitors and locks, sickly fluorescent corridors at the police station, and rain-slick, grey-blue city streets that look wet even indoors. Director Jon Amiel keeps the camera mostly composed and still, letting tension build in the spaces between words rather than through flashy movement, with a tight, anxious score that pulses under the quieter scenes. The mood is clinical dread with a hard edge, the kind of late-night, alone-on-the-sofa suspense that tightens rather than releases. Its pacing is steady and procedural, with the emotional center resting on two wary women (a housebound psychologist and a detective who has her own scars) slowly forming an uneasy trust. Violence is present and occasionally brutal, with crime-scene recreations and a few sudden, shocking attacks, but it is more startling than gory, and some sequences carry real menace and unsettling cruelty. Best for viewers who enjoy tense, character-driven crime thrillers and psychological cat-and-mouse games, less so for anyone wanting something gentle.
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