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The Review Geek
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Copycat (1995) Ending Explained – A chilling look at fear, obsession and legacy
Copycat Plot Summary Copycat is a tense psychological thriller revolving around the capture of a sadistic serial killer prowling around LA. The movie centers on Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver), a renowned criminal psychologist and expert on serial killers. Her inspiring and thought provoking talk in the middle of a student lecture hall about serial killers, leads into an unexpected and traumatic attack by deranged killer Daryll Lee Cullum (Harry Connick Jr.) Although Helen survives this encounter, it causes her to become severely agoraphobic and she retreats into isolation. Years later, a series of murders begin in San Francisco, mimicking the methods of infamous serial killers. Detectives M.J. Monahan (Holly Hunter) and Reuben Goetz (Dermot Mulroney) enlist Helen's help to profile the killer – but can they do so before it's too late? Who is the killer? The midway point of the movie unravels the true killer, as Helen works with the police to try and find this man. Her assessment of a 20-35 year old white male rings true, as the murderer is revealed to be Peter Foley (William McNamara). This unassuming man, who lives at home with his wife , is revealed to have a whole basement used as his 'funhouse'. For him, this spree is a twisted art project—a way to gain legacy and recognition by building on the 'work' of murderers past. Who does the killer focus on last? As we build toward the climax of the movie, Foley becomes fixated on Helen, using her computer to send a program that taunts her and even a video to show his latest victim. However, it soon becomes clear that he not only views her as a final target, but also someone who will truly understand what he's doing. Foley's murders are staged with clinical precision, something we see from the various crime scenes across the movie. Each of them echo a notorious killing from history. His obsession escalates to a note left for Helen, whom he eventually kidnaps and attempts to recreate her near-death experience from years prior—symbolically tying up his murderous 'tribute.' How does Foley cover his tracks? While this is going on, M.J. and the police storm Foley's house when they learn of his identity. They arrive too late. Foley's wife is dead, the house is in flames, and any evidence is lost with it, leaving the police reeling. What happens during the showdown? Foley takes Helen to the same university bathroom where she was attacked by Cullum, recreating the moment in horrifying detail. He ties her up with a noose around her neck, tip-toeing on the toilet basin. He intends for her to hang herself as a final symbolic kill in his copycat series. Helen, terrified but composed, uses her knowledge of criminal psychology to stall for time and emotionally manipulate Foley. She laughs, kicks off her other shoes and buys time for Detective Monahan. She races against the clock, following the trail of clues Foley has left behind but winds up part of Foley's sick game. How does Helen confront her fears? Managing to escape when Foley shoots Monahan in the chest, she faces her fears and heads up onto the rooftop. She stumbles across to the edge of the rooftop, calling for help, before turning and facing down this killer. Earlier on, she had to face Cullum at home on the computer, and she struggled to even look at the monitor. She was clearly still suffering from the effects and wanted to try and bury it. However, speaking to Cullum, who taunts her and asks for her panties as a 'souvenir' in exchange for info, seems to help shake something inside her. She's no longer a prisoner to the fear that once defined her. Instead, she turns it into strength. Facing this horrific ordeal again that has haunted her for the past thirteen months has made Helen stronger, and this time she laughs in the face of pure evil. Is Foley stopped? Monahan arrives just in time to stop the murder, shooting Foley first in the shoulder, and then several times in the chest. This is a significant moment and a beautifully foreshadowed one too. Early in the movie, Reuben and M.J. were on a training exercise and Reuben fired wildly, shooting a target multiple times. M.J. though, shot the target once and explained this is enough to incapacitate them. Unfortunately, this arrogance and lack of fear (something Helen also calls Monahan out for in the film) costs Reuben his life. During a skirmish involving Chinatown residents, Reuben is shot by a crazed man who holds him at gunpoint. Although Monahan shot him in the shoulder to drop him to the ground, he still shot Reuben dead. In the ensuing confrontation, she fatally shoots Foley and makes no mistake about her shots. She fires multiple times and eventually shoots him in the head. It's also worth noting too that Monahan is genuinely scared during this encounter, reinforcing that fear can keep you alive. How does Copycat end? Helen is saved, and the nightmare ends—at least for now. The experience forces Helen to confront her deepest fear and take steps, however small, toward reclaiming her autonomy. In the film's final moments, we cut to the prison once more where we see Cullum writing a note to more of his 'disciples'. He turns and looks at the camera, hinting that Foley is just one of many foot soldiers he has at his disposal looking to take up the mantle of serial killings. Fear, obsession, and legacy The movie serves as a chilling portrayal of how easily disenfranchised men—especially white men aged 20–35—can lose their way and become radicalized by ideology in a desperate need to become famous. Copycat doesn't end with comfort—it ends with a warning. The final scenes inside the prison reframe the narrative: this wasn't just one man's descent—it's part of a wider cultural sickness. This moment not only reinforces what Helen said earlier in the lecture hall, it also warns about the pursuit of greatness—and how our culture has become obsessed with death and murderers. It's a theme that feels even more relevant today, 30 years on from the film's release. Foley himself even mentions to Helen that more books have been written about Dahmer than Abraham Lincoln. The movie doesn't offer any easy answers on how to solve this problem, but its final moments certainly give plenty to chew on.
South China Morning Post
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Behind the Shadows movie review: Louis Koo plays detective in Malaysia-set murder thriller
3/5 stars Louis Koo Tin-lok, the Hong Kong film industry's most prolific star and arguably its most influential investor too, puts his signature blend of deadpan charisma and dramatic intensity to fine use in Behind the Shadows, the first Malaysian production of his company One Cool Film. A character-driven detective thriller that shows a fascination with cheating wives and jilted husbands, the film sees Koo play a hardbitten private investigator who, while running away from his own marriage, must track down a serial killer who seems to bear a grudge against unfaithful women. Life has not gone the way he would have liked for Au Yeung Wai-yip (Koo), a Hong Kong detective who believes he threw away a successful career when he moved to Malaysia to marry Kuan Weng-sam (Chrissie Chau Sau-na), a Malaysian-Chinese woman he met years earlier in Hong Kong. Play Now resigned to handling unremarkable cases that often involve adultery, Au Yeung is nonetheless shocked when a travel agency boss shows up at his office one day and commissions him to look into the personal life of Kuan, who the client says is his girlfriend of three months. This new development in his ongoing midlife crisis distracts Au Yeung from a missing-person case at the worst possible moment. The consequences prove to be dire when the woman he has been tailing becomes the latest casualty in a series of grisly murders that are plaguing a town.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Yahoo
13 victims found in a 70-mile radius in New England
Dr. Michelle DuPre, a former medical examiner, police detective and author of several criminal investigation guides, joins NewsNation to discuss a disturbing series of events in New England. Since the start of the year, 13 unexplained deaths have been reported across Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Investigators have no suspects, no clear cause and no evidence the deaths are connected. But if they are, authorities fear a serial killer could be responsible.
CBC
28-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
A serial killer targeted vulnerable women in Winnipeg. What's changed at shelters since then?
Social Sharing Three years after convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki targeted four vulnerable First Nations women, it's unclear what impact the case has had on safety protocols at some of Winnipeg's biggest shelters. Skibicki was found guilty last July of four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and an unknown victim who has since been identified as Ashlee Shingoose. During the trial, court heard Skibicki targeted vulnerable women who frequented homeless shelters. During his hours-long police interrogation, Skibicki told police he met Contois on the bus, he first met Harris years earlier at Siloam Mission, he met Shingoose outside the Salvation Army and he met Myran in a back lane between Siloam and the Salvation Army. Skibicki said he used some shelters for meals. In court, a shelter worker testified Skibicki once told him "he had his own place. He was just there to stalk his victims." CBC reached out to Siloam Mission, Salvation Army, Main Street Project and N'Dinawemak — Our Relatives' Place to ask if this case led to any changes in shelter operations and safety protocols. Only N'Dinawemak executive director Frank Parkes agreed to an interview. "That's a really difficult subject, and I think it will be a difficult subject for a long time for our community to speak about, because we still, you know, are dealing every day with the tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls," Parkes said. Video evidence from inside N'Dinawemak at 190 Disraeli Freeway released during the trial shows Harris with Skibicki. That's where the staff member said he had heard Skibicki make that chilling comment. Several agencies initially partnered to run the shelter as an emergency response to the cold weather in 2021, but Parkes said now N'Dinawemak is operated as one organization. "It was really just a way of making sure that one organization had responsibility for all of the aspects of the shelter," said Parkes, who took on his role less than two years ago, after the women were murdered. He thinks the way it runs now helps to streamline communication if a potentially dangerous issue emerges. "We can communicate from somebody who sees a problem, you know … out in the common space, and then get that information up into, you know, leadership and people that can actually act on that information and investigate it and report it, so that has changed for sure," Parkes said. The Indigenous-led shelter works to hire people who are Indigenous and who have lived experience, Parkes said. That plays a role in how the shelter thinks about the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and how they make decisions at the shelter, he said. "When you focus on hiring within the Indigenous community and you look at things through an Indigenous lens, then the whole story of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls becomes a part of how we make our decisions going forward, and so we kind of internalize it here because of our beliefs and our backgrounds and our shared experiences," Parkes said. "We're well aware that, you know, there are predators out there, and there are people that are exploiting women and girls." In response to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, Parkes would like to establish a response team at N'Dinawemak to connect with those who are vulnerable. Over the last year, they've looked at ways they could do that, he said. Right now, the shelter is focused on transitional housing and how they can work to move people using shelters into housing, he said. While the other three shelters contacted by CBC declined an interview, a joint statement from those shelters as well as 1JustCity was provided through End Homelessness Winnipeg. WATCH | Melissa Robinson talks about the need for more safe spaces for vulnerable women: What's changed at shelters since serial killer targeted vulnerable women? 1 hour ago Duration 5:52 During Jeremy Skibicki's trial, court heard the now convicted serial killer targeted vulnerable women who frequented Winnipeg homeless shelters. CBC looked into whether the case led to changes in how shelters operate and their safety protocols. The statement said, in part, the organizations "regularly review, update and strengthen protocols," but they couldn't disclose specific security measures because of privacy, safety and the sensitive nature of shelter operations. It also said the memory of the four women "continues to compel our sector toward greater action and accountability." "Our collective priority remains the safety, dignity and well-being" of people who use their services, the statement said, and many organizations have "enhanced gender-specific accommodations, introduced more responsive intake practices and improved co-ordination among shelters." More safe options Morgan Harris's cousin Melissa Robinson says there still aren't enough safe spaces for vulnerable women and Winnipeg needs emergency shelters exclusively for women. "I feel like my cousin may still be around, you know, right now, if that option was there," Robinson said. "She was preyed upon. Those other women were preyed upon, you know. How many more men out there are thinking that same thing?" Robinson co-founded Morgan's Warriors, named for her cousin and aimed at helping other vulnerable people. The team Robinson works with has taken women to Velma's House, which is a safe space for women, but space there can be limited, she said. Willow Place and Ikwe Widdjiitiwin offer women-only shelters, but their focus is on people fleeing violence, an End Homelessness Winnipeg spokesperson said. N'Dinawemak, Siloam Mission, Main Street Project and the Salvation Army operate areas within their facilities reserved for women, the spokesperson said. Robinson would like to see emergency shelters for women in several areas of the city. "Put one in the core area, put one here in the North End, put one, you know, maybe in the West Broadway area, so you kind of have them spaced out," she said. A provincial spokesperson said the province increased funding rates for shelters, transitional housing services and homeless outreach mentors in October 2022. That increase included a 15 per cent top-up for safety and security measures, the spokesperson said. Manitoba Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said her office is focused on getting people into housing with wraparound support. There are housing units earmarked for women, Smith said. "We know that homelessness is a real, you know, challenge for a lot of folks in this province, and it puts them at a disadvantage, as we've, you know, discovered with a lot of folks who are in shelter. They are unsafe at times," she said. At a news conference earlier this month, Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine announced a new specialized team will work with the Downtown Community Safety Partnership to help meet the needs of Indigenous women and girls. Fontaine said it's part of a four-year MMIWG2S+ provincial strategy named Mino'Ayaawag Ikwewag. When Fontaine was asked at the news conference about calls for women's shelters and how that could relate to the new specialized teams, she hinted that part of the province's strategy includes looking at the shelter system. "There hasn't been a substantial increase in ensuring that that infrastructure is up to date and modernized and meeting the needs of community," Fontaine said. "That's a fundamental part of the work that we're doing in Mino'Ayaawag Ikwewag, and it will be married perfectly with the work that these folks, these amazing women are doing on the streets."
