There are certain films where you can immediately see the blueprint for everything a director would go on to become. Manhunter is one of those films.

Michael Mann’s 1986 crime thriller has all the trademarks that would come to define his career: troubled men, obsessive characters, beautiful night cinematography and a synth-heavy soundtrack that seems to pulse underneath everything. As the film hits its 40th anniversary this year, Studiocanal is bringing Manhunter back to UK cinemas on September 25th via a brand-new 4K restoration, before receiving a home-entertainment release later this year across UHD, Blu-ray and digital.

Watching Manhunter for the first time felt like unearthing a gem. The story follows retired FBI profiler Will Graham, played by William Petersen, who is brought back to help catch a serial killer targeting families. To do it, he must get inside the mind of the killer while also consulting the imprisoned Hannibal Lecter, played by Brian Cox.

On paper, that sounds like a standard serial-killer thriller. It really isn’t. What surprised me most was how much the film is actually about Graham’s mental state, especially for a movie made in the mid-1980s. Mann isn’t simply interested in whether Graham can solve the case; he’s interested in what happens when you spend too long trying to understand someone else’s mind.

Petersen is fantastic. There’s an intensity to his performance that makes even the quieter scenes feel uncomfortable, and throughout the runtime, I couldn’t stop wondering why his filmography is so thin. As someone who hadn’t seen Manhunter before, I don’t want to reveal too much about the killer. However, what I will say is that I found it fascinating how Mann refuses to reduce him to a simple monster. There’s something deeply sad about the character, and that sadness lingers long after the credits roll.

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The component that stands out above everything else, though, is how Manhunter looks. Dante Spinotti’s cinematography is gorgeous. The film is filled with saturated colours, deep blues and glaring highlights that contrast against the darkness. There is simply nothing quite like a night scene in a Michael Mann film, and that’s where the new restoration really earns its place. The original 35mm negative has been scanned in 4K and restored under Mann’s supervision. Its intention isn’t simply to make an old film look cleaner; Mann has spoken about wanting the restoration to bring audiences closer to the feeling the film was intended to create in 1986. And you can feel that.

The colours have a richness that makes the film’s strange visual combinations even more striking, while the night photography has a depth that suits the story perfectly. There’s still a grain to the image, too. It doesn’t feel scrubbed clean or overly digital. Instead, it retains the texture and character you want from a film like this.

Manhunter feels like an important stepping stone in Mann’s career. You can see the filmmaker who would eventually make Heat, The Insider, Collateral and Miami Vice taking shape, but there’s something more raw here. It’s smaller, stranger and much more interested in the psychological damage left behind by violence.

Ultimately, the biggest attribute of this restoration is that it shines a light on a true legend of cinema and one of his most underrated gems – a film that more people should know about. So, instead of twiddling your thumbs waiting for Heat 2, take a deep dive into Mann’s filmography and watch Manhunter.

The film returns to UK cinemas on September 25th, ahead of its UHD, Blu-ray and digital home-entertainment release later this year. If, like me, you haven’t seen it before, this feels like the perfect opportunity to finally discover it.