Having previously come at murder from an investigative angle in thrillers such as Se7en, Zodiac, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and TV’s Mindhunter, with The Killer David Fincher switches sides and places us firmly in a perpetrator’s shoes. Featuring a pin-sharp script by Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, Fincher’s slick, blackly comic latest introduces us to a hitman going about his bloodthirsty business before the tables are dramatically turned.

Based on the French comic book by Alexis ‘Matz’ Nolent, The Killer follows Michael Fassbender’s assassin-for-hire, a man of many aliases but no discernible identity. Our protagonist prides himself on his meticulous, empathy-eschewing methods but makes an error at the outset which puts him and his fleetingly glimpsed girlfriend (Sophie Charlotte) in danger. Charles Parnell features as his handler, with Tilda Swinton appearing as a ruthless rival.

There’s more than a touch of John Wick to The Killer’s globe-trotting vengeance, though it’s helmed with a great deal more restraint by a typically precise Fincher. If it feels a tad underwhelming in its final throes and is as cold as you’d expect a film about a murderer to be, idiosyncratic details add splashes of essential character. The opening credits (with their pulsating beats and spliced images) kick things off in style, while the unfortunate appearance of a cheese-grater during a death brawl is fun.

Regular Fincher collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross deliver a brooding, synth-heavy score, while the regular employment of The Smiths is inspired (heaven knows what Morrissey makes of being used to soundtrack a psychopath). And Fassbender’s narration is as amusing as it is unnerving, like his explanation of why he chooses to camouflage himself as a German tourist: ‘because no one wants to interact with a German tourist.’

The Killer screens at Vue West End, Saturday 7 October, and BFI Southbank, Thursday 12 October as part of the BFI London Film Festival; in cinemas from Friday 27 October, and on Netflix from Friday 10 November.