Movies about Serial Killers: Best Films

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1931 - 20188 Films17h 4m4.7 Average

This watch list presents a diverse selection of exceptional serial killer movies, showcasing masterful filmmaking across different eras and approaches. Fritz Lang's M established the template in 1931 with its groundbreaking psychological depth and social commentary. Dario Argento's Deep Red perfected the Italian giallo style with stunning visuals and elaborate set pieces.

Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs became the genre's definitive achievement, winning Best Picture and creating an indelible cultural icon in Hannibal Lecter. David Fincher contributes two masterworks: Se7en's nihilistic thriller about a methodical killer using the seven deadly sins, and Zodiac's meticulous procedural about obsession and unsolved mystery.

Mary Harron's American Psycho offers brilliant satire on 1980s excess, while Bong Joon Ho's Memories of Murder brings a Korean perspective to the procedural format. Finally, Lars von Trier's The House That Jack Built provides provocative art cinema examining the mind of a killer across decades.

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1
M poster

M

19311h 49m4.9
Original Title: M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

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2
Deep Red poster

Deep Red

19752h 7m4.6
Original Title: Profondo rosso
Director: Dario Argento
Cast: David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril, Eros Pagni

An English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of his psychic neighbor. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using very unconventional methods. The two are soon drawn into a shocking web of dementia and violence.

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3
The Silence of the Lambs poster

The Silence of the Lambs

19911h 59m5
Director: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

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4
Se7en poster

Se7en

19952h 7m5
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, John Cassini, Peter Crombie

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

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5
American Psycho poster

American Psycho

20001h 42m4.4
Director: Mary Harron
Cast: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny

A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.

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6
Memories of Murder poster

Memories of Murder

20032h 11m4.9
Original Title: 살인의 추억
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roi-ha, Song Jae-ho, Byun Hee-bong

A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.

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7
Zodiac poster

Zodiac

20072h 37m4.5
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr., Chloë Sevigny

Over the course of a decade, editors of the San Francisco Chronicle entice themselves in the murders of the Zodiac Killer. However, as time runs its course, interest in the case dwindles in the eyes of the professionals. The Killer stops interacting with the public. However, believing he has the answers, an amateur cartoonist from the initial sightings races against time to prevent what he believes is another murder.

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8
The House That Jack Built poster

The House That Jack Built

20182h 32m4.1
Director: Lars von Trier
Cast: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl

Failed architect, engineer and vicious murderer Jack narrates the details of some of his most elaborately orchestrated crimes, each of them a towering piece of art that defines his life's work as a serial killer for twelve years.

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