In 1991 a new floodgate in the world of 90’s thrillers was opened with the sensational success of the masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs,  the deeply disturbing and wonderfully entertaining Best Picture winning film, directed by Jonathon Demme, pitting Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling against the wits of Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lecter – all three winning Oscars themselves. This gave way to a wave of lesser serial killer and murder based films exploring similar deep dark worlds figuratively both above and underground. Although none were ever as good as the original inceptor of the craze, we frankly couldn’t get enough of the craze and there’s plenty to talk about the films we ended up getting in one masterpieces wake.  

Jennifer 8 (Dir. Bruce Robinson, 1992)  

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The career of Bruce Robinson is certainly a bizarre one and in many ways at this point more of a factor of curiosity than anything. Following on from his genuine masterpiece of writing and directing Withnail and I, Robinson confessed that he wanted to make a film that would be a sure-fire success box office wise, to fund future more niche projects. The film he conceived, aswell as writing and directing, was the box-office failure Jennifer 8, to the extent that in the UK it was even released straight to video. Robinson would then not direct another film until 19 years later for the Johnny Depp starring The Rum Diary. Jennifer 8 in that way is rather clearly a concoction of all the sure fire things to make a thriller like this work and for long stretches it does just that, however a plethora of red-herrings and nonsensical plot propositions in an effort to make the ending all the more shocking, end up just making the film a bit of a convoluted mess.  At the heart of the film is a setting that really does work wonders for the films atmosphere of dread and fear, beautifully photographed by Conrad Hall, however this setting is too a symptom of Robinson’s injection of tropes into every corner, with our lead John Berlin (played by Andy Garcia, in a role originally envisioned for Al Pacino) being a “big city cop” coming from L.A to the middle of nowhere. Sometimes at the core of the film is a budding romance between Uma Thurman as a blind woman who may be the possible next victim in our murderers trail. Berlin moves to protect her, but naturally falls for her. Both Thurman and Garcia are fine, but never really sell either the stakes or the romance that the script posits. The two big saviours for the role are two supporting performances by Lance Heriksen and John Malkovich. Henriksen is around for much longer and makes his presence felt throughout the first half of the film, before becoming the fuel for Berlin’s second act motivation. However Malkovich really does steal the entire film, even if it was for just one major powerhouse scene, in an interrogation of Garcia’s Berlin.

Copycat (Dir. Jon Amiel, 1995)

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For a film that has so much going for it, it really is quite frustrating how plentiful and frequent Copycat’s pitfalls are. Perhaps it could be the fact that it does have just that, so much going for it. Copycat does afterall feature several elements that could very well do for their own film; the copycat killer re-creating the world’s most notorious murders, an agoraphobic psychologist helping out with cases from her home (which we’ll see elements of with The Bone Collector later), the returning to a convicted killer in prison for advice (shades of course of Silence of the Lambs) and then that same killer getting other murderous fans to do their work (shades of Red Dragon/Manhunter). The film does indeed have all of these interesting pieces but ultimately suffers from a complete lack of mystery and tension. Whereas we of course now from Lambs and many episodes of Columbo, that knowing who a killer is can have very little effect upon the mystery elements of a film – here our killer, William McNamara’s Peter Foley, simply isn’t that interesting. And our other killer, Harry Connick Jr’s Daryl Lee Cullum is frankly absurd and laughable. Both McNamara and Connick deliver sub-par performances with no tension, fear or anything major about them. This all leads to the integral hunt being deflated and un-interesting, along with a very, very weak climax built around a great premise, just with all of its energy seemingly sapped from it. The films strongest elements lie with Sigourney Weaver’s housebound agorophobe, who delivers a genuinely sterling performance filled with emotion and a deftness to what that sort of situation must involve. Holly Hunter’s lead detective too brings her natural charm and strength to her performance. However two great performances cannot help a film that simply does not live up to the many great elements that it introduces, but fails to service in a fulfilling and satisfying way.

Primal Fear (Dir. Gregory Hoblit, 1996)

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For me this is just one of the finest thrillers ever made, and certainly one of the best courtroom features of a decade overflowing with them. For many the film has rightly become purely synonymous with its final reveal, which still bristles with Goosebumps every time it rears itself. The film really does have a great effect in that way. However for me, no matter how truly, truly excellent and astounding that final twist in the tale is, Primal Fear really is so much more and the ending certainly wouldn’t work if it were not for the brilliant film that goes before it. The films sole Oscar nomination was for Best Supporting Actor for an unabashedly star-making turn by Edward Norton. Frankly I can’t imagine anybody who didn’t sit down in that movie theatre in 1996 after watching Fear and didn’t declare that Norton would be the next legend of acting and performance. Norton’s career has been very strong since, but for me his turn as Aaron Stampler is still one of the most iconic turns in movie history. The duplicitous nature of his character is the stuff of immense tension, human drama and ultimately horror. But the film isn’t just Norton’s, the film also boats an excellent performance from Richard Gere, as the publicity hungry lawyer Martin Vail, who is taken through the ringer by this case and this trial. Gregory Hoblit directs with a great efficiency Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman’s screen adaptation of William Diehl’s novel. Beyond its many great twists and turns, the films script pulsates with bristling and acerbic dialogue, that always for a more human touch throughout. I would too be remiss to not mention the many stellar supporting performances that the film boasts in its stacked ensemble, from Laura Linney to Alfre Woodard to John Mahoney, to Frances Mcdormand, to Andrew Braugher, and so many more. The film really is packed with stars doing great wok, and all servicing an excellent film that keeps you guessing the entire time, and never loses any of its style and effect on rewatches, even after we already know what the final reveal will be when the climatic card is turned.

The Bone Collector (Dir. Phillip Noyce, 1999)

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Another major literary series of the 90’s was Jeffrey Deaver’s series of novels following the brilliant quadriplegic ex-cop Lincoln Rhyme, spurning of multiple highly successful books and even a current TV show. All possibility of a series of films however was put on hold with the pretty mediocre reception that 1999’s The Bone Collector received. Director Phillip Noyce, of Dead Calm fame, even openly admitted that the film was just a reaction to Se7en, commenting on it like a fool’s errand with matching Fincher’s film to be an impossibility. The film certainly doesn’t match Se7en but does have some effective moments and some great lead performances. The big get of Denzel Washington in the role of Rhyme perhaps brings a certain respectability to the material, despite its very pulp nature. Washington is effective, depthful and funny at times as Rhyme and makes for a very intriguing lead character. The film is however ultimately a co-lead feature with Angelina Jolie being his “gofer” to start with, before growing into a true companion in crime and friendship. Jolie’s Amelia Donaghy is a fierce and layered character, who battles against Rhyme, whilst also having multiple very human moments. The ensemble cast is stacked with brilliant character actors in roles that build an interesting and real world, with Queen Latifah, Ed O’Neil, Michael Rooker and Luis Guzman to name a few. The core of the story lies in a world of a gothic and almost ancient old New York, clashing brutally with the modern.  The kills are interesting, but ultimately fall at the final hurdle with a completely out of nowhere killer reveal with no clues, or set-up to justify the identity we end up with. It’s a neat idea ruined by a bombardment of exposition that makes everything seem ridiculous and overwrought.  A concluding song choice of “Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush does give the film a couple more points, but there unfortunately not points based off the films own merit.

8mm (Dir. Joel Schumacher, 1999)

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In what I like to see as a direct response to the hammy childish farce of his previous directorial effort, Joel Schumacher directed the high concept and deeply perverted thriller  8mm, following Nicholas Cage into the deep underworld of snuff films and hardcore illegal fetish pornography. It’s certainly a wild ride. The film is credited in its screenplay to Andrew Kevin Walker, hot off his wonderful experience with David Flincher on Se7en where he was brought in at all points regarding the script, this was not the case here however as the studio wanted a lighter tone for the film, hence Walker completely disowned the feature and claims to never have seen the film. Where 8mm perhaps falters in its delivery of a taut and slick psychological thriller in the ilk of Walker’s previous effort, it certainly delivers in the field of absurd and at times seriously over-the-top film revelling in its gallery of extreme performances from some of the finest character actors of our day, ranging from Peter Stormare to James Gandolfini, to a very early role for Joaquin Phoenix.  The film by all accounts was not originally conceived as the bizarre big budget feature that we eventually got, with an earlier proposal of a grittier, smaller budgeted film with Russell Crowe as the lead (Cage was a larger box office draw at the time and so the budget went with the grander Cage starring project). What the film does so well, despite its ridiculousness at points is give us a descent into hell. I love films where a straight laced individual slowly gives way to his inhibitions and descends further and further into a hell. The film gets much of its major influence from Paul Schrader’s exceptional film Hardcore, working off a similar premise of an exploration into the world of underground pornography. But where Hardcore leans into the drama and real life horrors of the situation, 8mm leans into the ridiculous and the laughs, not that it knows that it is doing it.

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There is of course the only other murderer feature that can hold a flame to Lambs, Fincher’s Se7en, however I felt the angle of this article was more so towards the more lacklustre fare brought on by Demme’s film. Sure, none of these films can hold much of a torch to Demme’s masterpiece, but they are some of the better (and worse) examples of what came afterward due to the immense impact of the Best Picture winner. Some of these tried to make a new Clarice Starling, some tried to make a new Hannibal Lecter, and some simply tried to emulate Demme’s immaculate direction of a sterling script – I can’t exactly put a finger on why none of these achieved all three, but some certainly achieved one or even two of these elements. Above all some are worth recommendations, even if you would just be better off watching Lambs. As Lecter would say; “Ta Ta”.

-        -  Thomas Carruthers