In any format, this Michael Mann thriller is gritty entertainment.

Michael Mann’s 1986 crime thriller “Manhunter” is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a special 4K Final Cut in select locations. I saw this movie at the IFC Center in NYC, and I was amazed at how enhanced it is. There’s an introduction saying how the process was done and who was able to give it a crisp look. But equally important is how mind-boggling and consistent it is as a Mann thriller.

This movie, which is the first cover version of Thomas Harris’ book “Red Dragon,” got mixed reviews and bombed at the box office at the time of its release. I believe the reasons have to do with how Mann stylized it through his 80s films trademark of pastel colors, art-deco architecture, and glass brick. But time has reexamined it as a cult movie, and I think those trademarks merge with the film’s tone and narrative.

The serial killer is labeled by the media as “the Tooth Fairy,” because of the bite marks he leaves on his victims, and through his see-through mask, we know it’s the late Tom Noonan as Francis Dollarhyde.

William Peterson plays Will Graham, the manhunter assigned to find him, and begins by visiting the killer who attacked him-Hannibal Lector (Brian Cox before Anthony Hopkins played him in “Silence of the Lambs,” “Hannibal,” and “Red Dragon”) to figure out the Tooth Fairy’s motives. In fact, this killer may be a big fan of Lector’s work.

There’s other big names that were amazed how young they were back then. I was amazed when I first saw Cox as Lector, but I also saw the late Dennis Farina as FBI agent Jack Crawford, Stephen Lang as the cocky reporter Freddy Lounds, Joan Allen as a blind potential victim of the Tooth Fairy, Kim Griest as Will’s wife, and I knew that was Chris Elliott as an analyst. I know that’s a minor thing, but I still had to recognize him.

I wasn’t a big fan of a passionate moment between the Noonan villain and the Allen blind woman because it seems to lag a bit, but the music and execution pays off well. I was more hooked with how Peterson plays it straight as the manhunter. He body slams the reporter on a car, he talks to his son about why he retired from the FBI, and he knows how to figure out the motives of the main antagonist. And as I’m looking at then young Peterson, I’m thinking of a young Richard Dreyfus.

Cult movies have their own ways of trying to make comebacks (“The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Blade Runner,” “Scarface,” etc.), and “Manhunter should be reexamined for how Mann represents the Harris characters. Cox may not have reached up to Hopkins’ powerful acting, but he still does a good job portraying Lector with a certain kind of charisma. And Noonan had the height and tone to play the main killer. Seeing movies about how killers function keeps us thinking about the insanity of it all, and this film never overdoes on that. It just sends a burning man rolling down in a wheelchair. And the filmmaker knows a good soundtrack when he hears it (with Shriekback and Iron Butterfly in the mix).

I bought Mann’s 1995 bank robbery hit “Heat” on Blu-Ray, and its enhancement is as crisp and fresh as the film itself. And I’m glad I saw “Manhunter” in 4k in a small movie theater, because the appearance resonates with the film itself. What better way to watch a movie we may or may not have seen yet than inside a movie theater? And if it isn’t playing at your art house theater, then I’m sure you can rent it online or look for it on Blu-ray. After all, Gen Z is helping out with the movie industry. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

The Final Cut is Playing in Select Locations