Papertrail
Papertrail is a 1998 Canadian thriller film produced, co-written and directed by Damian Lee, starring Chris Penn, Michael Madsen and Chad McQueen. In it, a loner detective is brought back to the unsolved serial killer case that once destroyed his social life, when he is asked to attend a therapy group whose psychiatrist has been receiving phone calls from the perpetrator. On North American home video, the film was renamed Trail of a Serial Killer, while it is known as Serial Cops in the U.K.
Plot
Jason Enola is an obsessive FBI agent who is almost losing his mind after ten years on the tail of an elusive serial killer whose hallmark is the "paper trail" of notes left along with the victims. Brad Abraham is the agent buddy who is watching Enola's back. As the film begins, a new wave of killings start after four years of silence, and the psychiatrist Dr. Alyce Robertson becomes involved when she starts receiving telephone calls from the killer.Cast
Production
The film was originally known under the working title of Fear. It was co-written by Joseph O'Brien, a future writer for the Canadian horror film magazine Rue Morgue. O'Brien was displeased with the finished product, calling it "atrocious" and humorously noting that he tried to avoid conversations about it. It was the first and only film directed by Damian Lee for the original incarnation of Noble House Entertainment, a short-lived company born of the merger of his existing production outfit, Richmond House, with Canadian distributor United Media. Michelle Johnson, who starred in several of Lee's works around that time, was attached to the project late into pre-production, but does not appear.Photography took place in the Toronto metropolitan area during parts of November and December 1996, under the title of Papertrail. Scenes from the final set piece involving a wounded Chris Penn were filmed on the city's major artery of Yonge Street. In a Toronto Star article published ahead of release, the actor playing the serial killer mentioned feeling uncomfortable during the shoot due to the nature of the role, revealing part of the ending.