Michael Mann’s 1986 thriller Manhunter is returning to cinemas in a 4K restoration and expanded director’s cut for its 40th anniversary, prompting the director and cast to reflect on its unsettling depiction of criminal psychology. Mann describes his interest in the underworld as a form of cultural anthropology, while the film explores how FBI profiler Will Graham’s ability to empathise with killers damages his own mental wellbeing. The re-release matters because the film helped redefine the visual and emotional language of modern thrillers and introduced Hannibal Lecter to cinema audiences.

Based on Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon, the film follows Graham, played by William Petersen, as he comes out of retirement to stop serial killer Francis Dolarhyde before another full-moon murder. Graham had recently left psychiatric care after confronting Lecter, played here by Brian Cox, and Petersen said the role was difficult to leave behind after filming. The Final Cut adds three minutes of footage and opens in New York and Los Angeles before a wider US release; Stephen Lang, who played reporter Freddie Lounds, recalls Mann as demanding but generous and artistically driven.