Copycat (1995) on Netflix
Psychologist Helen Hudson became agoraphobic after Daryll Lee Cullum attacked her. Detective M.J. Monahan needs her help with murders that recreate the crimes of notorious serial killers.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.6/1087,903 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes76%
Trailer
Plot summary
Dr. Helen Hudson lectures on criminal psychology and has made a study of serial killers. One of her former subjects, Daryll Lee Cullum, escapes from prison and corners her in a lecture hall restroom, killing a police officer and attacking her before another officer subdues him. Helen becomes agoraphobic and shuts herself in her San Francisco apartment, where her assistant Andy looks after her. A run of murders across the city draws homicide detectives M.J. Monahan and Ruben Goetz. Helen sees that the killer is repeating the crimes of notorious murderers, among them Albert DeSalvo, the Hillside Strangler, David Berkowitz and Ted Bundy, and she contacts the police anonymously. After fourteen calls the department identifies her, and she agrees to work with the two detectives.
Cast
- Shannon O'Hurleyas Susan Schiffer
- Bob Greeneas Pachulski
- Tony Haneyas Kerby
- Danny Kovacsas Kostas
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Copycat (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Original editor Alan Heim was fired and replaced with Jim Clark after the film struggled in its first audience previews. Clark's recuts met weaker scores, the sticking point being the original ending, which showed the killer kidnapping Monahan instead of Hudson; Frank Darabont scripted new scenes and reshoots took place in June 1995.- Early versions of the screenplay had M.J. Monahan written as a man, with a romantic plot line between Monahan and Helen Hudson. Director Jon Amiel made the cop a woman and got rid of the love story, saying he had never seen a full-on suspense drama with two women in the lead.
- A 2019 New Yorker article noted that A. J. Finn's bestselling debut novel The Woman in the Window has the same setup as Copycat without attribution. Told about it, director Jon Amiel said it was probably not actionable, but one would have hoped the author might have noted it himself.
- The Washington Post's Rita Kempley commented that because Copycat depicts the victimization of women through the eyes of its female protagonists, the film really has more in common with The Silence of the Lambs.
- Copycat proved very successful in the video rental market, becoming the 11th most-rented film in the United States for 1996.
