Copycat is a 1995 American psychological thriller film directed by Jon Amiel and starring Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, and Dermot Mulroney.

The film follows a criminal psychologist and a homicide detective who must work together to find a serial killer who is committing copycat crimes modeled after notorious murderers.

After the attack, Hudson becomes severely agoraphobic, sealing herself inside an expensive hi-tech apartment, conducting her entire life from behind a computer screen, and assisted by her friend, Andy.

When a wave of murders spreads fear and panic across San Francisco, homicide detective M.J. Monahan and her partner, Reuben Goetz, solicit Helen's expertise.

As the murders continue, Helen realizes that the elusive assailant draws inspiration from notorious serial killers, including Albert DeSalvo, The Hillside Strangler, David Berkowitz, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy.

At the police station, Inspector Nicoletti places his gun in his desk drawer but forgets to lock it, allowing a suspect to grab it and take Reuben hostage.

[4] Amiel chose to set Copycat in San Francisco because he liked "the idea of contrasting a physically beautiful city with horrendously cruel human events".

[7] Clark's recuts were met with increasingly weaker audience scores, with the main sticking point being the original ending, which showed the killer kidnapping Monahan instead of Hudson.

[12] Multiple reviews praised both Weaver and Hunter's performances, with Ebert commenting that "the relationship between M. J., so small and forcible, and Hudson, so large and timid...creates the center of the movie".

[12][14][15][16] Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack said "Weaver's bravura performance as an accomplished professional reduced to a trembling wreck is her most memorable, complex work to date.

[18][19][12][20][16] 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".

[17][20][22] The New York Times' Janet Maslin wrote that the film "can recall unsettling aspects of other thrillers – Vertigo, Wait Until Dark, The Silence of the Lambs, [and] Dirty Harry...but [it] has a personality of its own".

[22][25][15] In a negative review, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times commented on the larger trend of serial killer films, expressing "Copycat seems pornographically intent on pushing the envelope of what is acceptable for thrillers on screen.

Club, Alex McLevy said the film "is the work of a talented director, cinematographer, and actors all elevating an oft-clumsy script into a smart and gripping yarn", adding it "sneaks some interesting and subtle themes about gender and interpersonal relationships into its cat-and-mouse games".

[26] In 2020, Sara Century of SYFY said the film "has only become more relevant as serial killer idolization continues in full force and victims struggle to receive any fraction of the attention that the perpetrators get from police, press, artists, and society at large.