10 Underappreciated 90s Thrillers You Must Watch

Seen by many as the poorer cousin of contemporary serial killer classics, The Silence Of The Lambs and Seven, Copycat is a stylish and taut thriller that has been unfairly left in the shadows.

The plot concerns a killer recreating infamous murders carried out by historic serial killers. This is all seemingly for the benefit of celebrity Criminologist, Dr Helen Hudson, played by Sigourney Weaver, in what turns out to be a surprisingly vulnerable role for the usually tough Weaver.

Hudson suffers a traumatic episode early in the film at the hands of Daryll Lee Cullum, played by Harry Connick Jr. This causes her to develop agoraphobia and to withdraw from public life. Investigating these crimes, alongside Dermot Mulroney’s Detective Ruben Goetz, is M.J. Monahan, played by an excellent Holly Hunter. Drawing stark comparisons to Jodie Foster’s Agent Starling from Silence Of The Lambs with an equal resilience and determination to that which we saw in Starling.

The premise of the movie really pushes the action along, the idea of serial killers being famous enough to have fans dedicated to committing murder in their honour brings a feel of post-modernism. Some of the set pieces are outstanding, particularly two scenes in bathrooms which sandwich the film at beginning and end.

It doesn’t go to the dark places of Seven, and maybe that was its downfall at the time of release but it is well worth a look to catch a classic of the zeitgeist of the mid-90s thriller boom.