Last year many critics were puzzled with Red Dragon, a remake of a Manhunter, film being made only sixteen years earlier. However, a sort of similar remake was made even earlier, in 1995 when Pierre David directed B-thriller called Serial Killer. Protagonist of this film is Selby Younger (played by Kim Delaney), FBI agent assigned to Psychological Profiling Unit and specialised for hunting down serial killers. Her latest task - capturing William Lucian Morrano (played by Tobin Bell), particularly vicious but also a very intelligent serial killer - almost becomes her last when the prey turns on his pursuer. Selby survives the attack and Morrano gets captured, but the psychological wounds are so severe that Selby must be transferred to desk job in order to recuperate. Two years later Morrano escapes from prison and Selby must finally face her personal demons.
Although it borrows a lot from Michael Mann's 1986 film, Serial Killer would better be described as "poor man's Manhunter" than its remake. The budget is low, and so is the case with the level of originality in Mark Sevi's script. The plot is quite predictable and the viewers are probably going to experience a lot of "deja vu", even during somewhat unconventional finale. The only thing that makes Serial Killer somewhat watchable is quite interesting performance by Tobin Bell, character actor who specialised for the supporting roles of villains in 1990s. Here he obviously enjoyed the opportunity to play lead villain, but those viewers who want decent entertainment would probably do themselves a favour if they skip Serial Killer.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on January 17th 2003)
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