The nineties may have been the best time to live life on planet Earth, especially if you’re into thrillers. Erotic thrillers. Detective thrillers. And particularly serial killer thrillers that dipped their toe into the horror genre. The film we’re talking about today, Copycat, was released just one year before Scream would perfect the mix of serial killer mystery and slasher horror. In this breakdown, we’ll explore why it shares so many elements with the film that changed horror forever… and how making it was, at times, a horror movie in itself.
Test screenings went horribly wrong. Editors were fired. And the ending had to be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. This is what happened to one of the most underrated serial killer thrillers of the 1990s: Copycat.
Copycat was only the second project written by Ann Biderman (later known for Ray Donovan) alongside David Madsen. The script initially went to director Jon Amiel, who rejected it immediately. He felt it was too violent and exploitative, particularly in its depiction of violence against women. When the studio offered him creative control, he reconsidered.
Working with collaborator Jay Presson Allen (uncredited), Amiel made several major changes:
This fundamentally changed the tone, flipping the perspective on violence. Amiel also chose to set the film in San Francisco, using locations like Pacific Heights and Twin Peaks to contrast beauty with brutality.
For the lead role of Dr. Helen Hudson, the production landed Sigourney Weaver, best known as Ellen Ripley in Alien. Hudson is a brilliant criminal psychologist suffering from severe agoraphobia after a brutal attack. She communicates with the outside world through early internet technology until a new serial killer case pulls her back in.
Weaver has said the role was emotionally exhausting. The psychological toll left her feeling deeply unsettled, and she trained nightly with a karate instructor just to break out of the victim mindset. She also conducted extensive research, including time spent with real-life criminal psychologists like Park Dietz. Despite the grim subject matter, especially following her work in Death and the Maiden, she found the experience intellectually energizing.
Director Jon Amiel specifically wanted Weaver for her credibility. He criticized films that cast superficial “sex symbol” types in serious roles and praised Weaver for embracing a vulnerable, complex character.
The film’s opening bathroom sequence is unforgettable, and was brutal to film. Weaver had to simulate hanging from a metal cable for days during production. Amiel even stated he wanted to do for women’s restrooms what Alfred Hitchcock did for showers in Psycho.
The result: a chilling opener that feels eerily similar to Scream.
From Christopher Young’s score to the film’s dark humor, Copycat carries a proto-Scream energy, making it an ideal companion piece.
One of the film’s biggest surprises was casting Harry Connick Jr. as killer Daryll Lee Cullum. At the time, Connick Jr. was struggling to land acting roles and nearly stepped away from the industry. During a dinner meeting, he experimented with darker, more unsettling versions of his New Orleans accent, assuming he had bombed the audition. A week later, he got the role.
Even he didn’t fully understand why he was chosen, but the performance works. Between the unsettling mannerisms and disturbing intensity, he delivers genuinely skin-crawling moments.
Connick Jr. later recalled that Sigourney Weaver kept her distance from him throughout filming, often leaving rooms when he entered. Their first real conversation didn’t happen until the premiere.
Still, Weaver appreciated his lighter moments between takes, like singing Sinatra during breaks. Though, let’s be honest, that probably got old fast for at least one crew member.
Holly Hunter plays Detective MJ Monahan, a role originally written for a man. Fresh off The Firm, Hunter brings depth, grit, and emotional complexity. Her performance echoes Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.
Her dynamic with partner Ruben (Dermot Mulroney) adds warmth, making his eventual fate all the more frustrating.
However, introducing a second killer created narrative issues, something audiences picked up on during test screenings.
This is where things really started to unravel. Editor Jim Clark (who replaced Alan Heim after poor test screenings) later revealed that the film’s problems stemmed from its ending, not the editing.
Audience reaction: overwhelmingly negative. Another version had a SWAT team kill the villain, removing agency from both leads.
After disastrous screenings, Warner Bros. halted post-production and invested in major reshoots. They brought in Frank Darabont to rewrite parts of the script and reconstructed sets to reshoot the ending.
According to Clark:
As if that wasn’t enough, the film faced serious technical issues. Much of it was shot in a converted U.S. Coast Guard hangar with terrible acoustics, described as “a toilet inside a church inside an echo chamber.” To fix it, the crew built massive sound-dampening rigs and blacked out large sections of the space.
They also lost their original sound team to Mission: Impossible, forcing them to adapt mid-production.
Copycat finally hit theaters on October 27, 1995.
It was a solid success for Warner Bros. Critics and audiences praised:
It also performed well on home video, ranking #2 in national rentals in April 1996.
The film teases a sequel, with Cullum continuing his influence from prison. It sets up a scenario where Dr. Hudson could face endless copycat killers, a concept that feels very Scream-like. And yet… no sequel was ever made. Probably for the best.
Today, Copycat lives on as a cult favorite. It’s the kind of movie that sparks instant appreciation among fans who know it, an under-the-radar gem that still holds up. With:
It’s absolutely worth revisiting, especially for fans of Scream.
The film’s use of agoraphobia and early internet culture gives it a distinct horror edge that still feels effective today. And that… is what happened to Copycat.
A couple of previous episodes of this show can be seen below. For more, check out the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel—and don’t forget to subscribe!