Female Empowerment in Copycat
Copycat (1995) has always been one of my favorite thrillers and though I’ve watched it many times for sheer entertainment value, I finally decided to put my thinking cap on and uncover what the appeal of this film is for me. Sigourney Weaver plays Dr. Helen Hudson, an agoraphobic psychologist who specializes in serial killers. Helen becomes housebound after being attacked by Daryl Lee Cullum, a serial murderer who holds a grudge after Hudson testified at his trial. When a rash of recent murders is discovered to be the work of a copycat killer, San Francisco homicide detective M.J. Monahan (Holly Hunter) appeals to Hudson for help in catching him. As the tag line explains “together, [the] two women must stop him from killing again, or they’re next.” The central message of Copycat is female empowerment. Helen and MJ are the true final girls of the film and Weaver skillfully pulls off the persona of the “pill popping, juice head” doctor on the verge of a nervous breakdown, while Hunter p...