MIND HUNTER

David Fincher returns to his favourite subject: serial killers

David Fincher, serial killer-obsessed director of Seven and Zodiac, has a new project all about serial killers. We are SHOCKED.

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“IT’S NOT JUST a longer Zodiac,” says David Fincher of MINDHUNTER, his new Netflix series about the birth of serial-killer profiling. “I mean, the first season’s probably only an hour longer…” He’s joking, or course, but there’s something in it. He may have won a BAFTA for The Social Network and an Emmy for House Of Cards, but Fincher knows that

Zodiac and Seven will forever link him with this blood-soaked subject. He’s exploring the dark side again in a ten-part run inspired by the memoir of FBI veteran John Douglas.

Hamilton star Jonathan Groff plays an upstart agent based on Douglas, who believes killers can be learned from; Holt Mccallany is his careworn partner. Together they interview incarcerated killers in order to catch others. “The most comprehensive look at psychosexual sadism was done in the [FBI’S] basement,” says Fincher. “There’s definitely a part of me that says, ‘Jesus, why do you continue to play into the argument that you have no imagination?’ But I’m not gonna apologise — this is the kind of stuff I find intriguing.”

That said, MINDHUNTER is about discovering what makes monsters, rather than retreading standard procedural beats. “There are no car chases,” stresses Fincher. “It’s not about getting ahead of the train. It’s about understanding what put the train on the rails.” Expect plenty of blood on the tracks.