Movies are full of weird people and things, but nothing is more terrifying than a serial killer, because a serial killer can't easily disappear because of "a movie". Of course, they may only affect those who have been seriously harmed, but there are many more such creatures in the world than skyscraper-sized reptiles or interstellar demons. Even in **a**, you don't hesitate to think that someone somewhere might want to kill you - and for no other reason than some unknown psychological factor forcing them to do so.
Then this begs the obvious question: why would anyone want to watch a movie about a serial killer?Indeed, unlike the average horror movie, a film that focuses on a murderer contains less "funny horrors" and instead holds up a broken mirror to society itself – at least, that's what good movies do. In compiling this list of the best serial killer movies, we've paid special attention to those that rely less on transgressive shocks and more on observing the conditions under which serial killers exist. These films delve into the darkest parts of human nature and reveal some things about ourselves in the process that we may not want to admit in the process. They may not be "fun" – although some do qualify – but the depths into the abyss of the human psyche are still of great value. You're guaranteed to be shocked when you leave.
Best Serial Killer Movie
Psycho
What else can be said about Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, which has yet to be said a dozen times?The film cuts the ribbon of 20'60s filmmaking with a downward cut move, breaking almost every established taboo of the past few decades, from violence to sex, to plot, to showing the use of toilets. It helped invent horror films, led spicy films, and elevated horror to high art. It has spawned countless imitators and parodies, as well as some poor-quality sequels, TV spin-offs, biopics, documentaries, and shot-by-shot remakes. If there's anything "new" about Psycho, it's perhaps that the film's far-reaching impact has overshadowed the performance of its central character, Anthony Boggins – it's hard to imagine anyone else playing Norman Bates, and this film casts such a long shadow.
The Silence of the Lambs
The Oscar-winning directed by Jonathan Demme is not the first screen appearance of the learned cannibal Lecter, but it is the one that haunts the public consciousness the most, thanks to the brilliant transformation of Anthony Hopkins, who plays a psychiatrist and psychopath who knows a pair of beautiful Chianti wines. It is best used with a person's liver. He is not the only sick person in The Silence of the Lambs, the other being Buffalo Bill, who prefers to skin his victims and put them on as masks. But it's a bit like a Tyrannosaurus rex vs. velociraptor confrontation. In this case, Lecter is the top predator, even if imprisoned.
Hunter's Night
Top tip: If you've only made one movie in your life, make Hunter's Night. Actor Charles Lawton's only directorial work is an extraordinary achievement, unlike any other film of his time. Emotionally, it feels like a vague memory of childhood trauma, which fits the story of two farm kids being pursued by psychopaths. The psychopath is a serial killer disguised as a preacher and is embodied in Robert Mitchum's legendary creepy, characterless performance. He acts with unsettling calmness and a philosophical view of his own ** behavior, arguably the forerunner of Anton Chigur in No Country for Old Men, while his iconic "love and hate" knuckle tattoo has been referenced by everyone from Spike Lee to Spike Lee.
Henry: Portrait of a serial killer
Even the most gloomy and terrifying horror films, if not glorify violent crime, end up being played for the thrill of deviance. Not here. Inspired by the confessed killer Henry Lee Lucas, Henry did paint a portrait of a psychopath, so brutal, unflinching, out of the quintessential Hollywood image that no publisher had been willing to touch it for years. (It was originally rated X by the MPAA.) Shot up close and in an overly personal style, without a hint of cinematic skill, especially in acting: Michael Rooker is a meat cabinet. - The protagonist character is cold, but compared to his buddy Otis (Tom Tolls), who is a moral compass, Otis must be physically restrained so as not to defile the corpse and ** his sister. Why do you recommend it?Because it will make you feel something that is rarely found in a movie – even if the feeling is disgusting.
5.m (1931)
German director Fritz Lang's first sound film invented police procedural films, psychological thrillers, and black ***, but its most enduring element may be its sense of moral ambiguity. Against the backdrop of the nightmarish spectacle of Berlin Expressionism, a young girl is killed, an act that can only be hinted at through shadows and an untethered balloon. It sent shockwaves through the city and its crimes***, and they would rather not have a single child murderer at large put pressure on their ranks. The audience already knows who did it – a sad-eyed Peter Law – but when both the criminals and the police approach him, Lang dares to ask: Is a child killer really worse than a lynching in a sick society?
Screaming
The Image Power Project In the '80s, Wes Craven defined the horror genre with The Nightmare of Haunted Street, and then, in the course of an increasingly stupid sequel, helped eliminate it. Ten years later, however, Craven succeeded in making the killing of teenagers fashionable again, largely by making fun of the tropes he had preached in his glory days. Scream may be the ace satirical of horror films, and by the time it was made, it had fallen out of favor, but it was also a very good horror film in its own right. The sequel has diminishing returns again, but the original remains smart, sharp, and terrifying. Whenever someone shows up at a Halloween party wearing an iconic ghost mask, don't pretend you still don't feel a little uneasy.
disappears
Dutch director Georges Sruize's psychological thriller may be the least bloody modern work on this list, but it's probably the purest horror film. This is undoubtedly the craziest production. On a road trip through the French countryside, a young man's girlfriend disappears without a trace from a rest stop. Years later, the mystery still haunts him. He was more concerned with finding hope that she was still alive than simply confirming what had happened to her. Destroying the answer is one of the unforgivable sins of cinema.
Halloween
* The idea of a group of sexually wanted teenagers was not invented by John Carpenter;He invented this idea. Black Christmas was four years before him. His innovation lies in giving ** a recognizable identity – rather than a vague, anonymous ** ghost, he gives the audience something they can imagine in their nightmares. Crucially, this is not the same as the backstory. The only thing we really know about Michael Myers at the beginning of the series is that he stabbed his sister to death as a child and that premarital sex upset him. However, it's enough to make him scarier than many other seemingly indestructible monster people who follow in his bulky footsteps. The basic principles of the original Halloween have been imitated so many times that it's hard to do it with fresh eyes, but decades later, seeing his masked face emerge from the shadow behind Jamie Lee Curtis still makes viewers jump from their seats.
Seven
David Fincher's new black *** knows crime scenes inside and out, inventing a new visual shorthand for crime films. The on-screen darkness is intensified by the rainy, moody metropolis as detectives William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and David Mills (Brad Pitt) search for clues in an intricate, gory case that begins to engulf both of them. Everything here is anonymous, from the Bible-inspired killer (known as "John Doe") to the nameless city itself, allowing us to project all sorts of horrors into a film that truly has no shortage of horror.
Black Christmas
Before "A Christmas Story" began looping infinitely on cable TV every December, Bob Clark directed a completely different holiday story. In this film, a group of sorority sisters who are on winter vacation are killed one by one by an invisible killer. It sounds generic, but that's only because a million other low-budget horror films — including Halloween, which didn't come out until four years later — borrowed its template. Even after decades of parody, Clark brings strict efficiency to a simple story and manages to incorporate something that still shocks you.
Memories of killing
Some consider this tricky crime thriller to be Bong Joon-ho's best film to date – despite the fierce competition. Many serial killer movies zero out the bloody ** itself, bathed in bloodshed, satisfying our not-so-noble rubber band instincts. Not of the state. Instead, he shows how powerless South Korea's society is to deal with the chaos caused by crime. A stupid cop and his cunning big-city partner try to solve these problems, but their efforts are in vain, revealing the deeper, sadder unease that goes hand in hand with the onslaught of skillful handling.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Is Ed Gaine the most influential *** person in modern cinema?His brutal crimes formed the basis for Psycho and another completely different film more than a decade later, which was about the son of a very disturbed mom. This classic cult film by Tobe Hooper offers a metaphor for the upcoming tsunami of cheap direct-recorded horror films for the next decade. But looking at it now, the most striking thing about "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is its restraint. It's strange to say for a film centered on chainsaw-wielding monsters and wearing female ** masks, but it's truly a triumph of the "less is more" filmmaking philosophy.
Zodiac signs
Unlike The Seven Deadly Sins, where the killings were nothing more than the specific killings generated by the imagination of screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, The Zodiac Killer was inspired by real events: specifically, the Zodiac Killer of San Francisco, now a notorious unsolved case in which he continues to kill in the San Francisco Bay Area. Late sixties. This reconstructional element, although stylishly presented through the lens of David Fincher, makes the ** even more creepy (the scene of the Lake Berissa ** case is still a painful screaming emoji). In Batman, as well as many other smaller films, you can still feel the imprint of the zodiac.
Crazy
Psycho gained more credit for creating the horror genre, but director Michael Powell beat Hitchcock on many of the same themes and nearly ruined his career in the process. His story, which tells the story of a deranged photographer who kills his victims with a knife on a tripod in order to capture their dying moments, all of them are women, caused an uproar among critics and audiences. For decades, *madness is now considered a seminal masterpiece in the field of psychological horror. While it's not as clever and ingenious as Psycho, Hitchcock may have Powell to thank for getting the audience used to on-screen deviance, even if only for a few months.
Wasteland
The Charles Starkwither case holds an important place in American mythology – Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about them, and Oliver Stone used it as the basis for his hyper-violent spectacle "Natural Born Killer." Terrence Malik's first film was also loosely based on the killing spree that teenage Stark Wither and his girlfriend Carlil Ann Forgate unfolded in 1958, spilling blood throughout the American heartland. But, in true Malik style, he takes a more hypnotic approach than Stone's loud and radical stylized vision twenty years later – but it's no less disturbing.
Rington Place
Richard Fleischer's story of the real-life serial killer John Christie, who terrorized London in the '40s and '50s, is often overlooked in the list of great true crime films, but it's truly a gripping forgotten gem, based on Richard's extremely disturbing performance of Attenborough as the quintessential "quiet neighbor with a dark secret."
American Psychiatric Patients
Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's satire** is considered a quintessential "movie bro" film, but it's actually a feminist satire on male vanity. No matter how you interpret it, though, Christian Bale's portrayal of Patrick Bateman is perfect, a narcissistic, ruthless, Huey Lewis-loving yuppie who vents his tedious Wall Street job by killing and mutilating strangers and co-workers.
I see the devil
An unusual mix of genres — half cop, half horror, all brain-dead — Kim's South Korean psychological film completely erases the traditionally blurred lines between cops and criminals, plunging the two into a fury of revenge, anger and violence. Strange, surprising guillotine. The detective, played by Lee Byung-hun, finds and tortures the serial killer who killed his pregnant fiancée, but keeps him alive to prolong his revenge, and bloodlust becomes a daily task. The killer is played by Choi Min-sik from "Oldboy", and his ruthlessness is just right, and he certainly has a lot of experience dealing with such shady characters. He didn't swallow any live octopus this time, but he did have a fire extinguisher on his face.
Man eats dog
This unique Belgian production, which predates the popularity of reality television and the revival of true crime, questions viewers' voyeurism and numbness through a pseudo-documentary about a glamorous serial killer Ben. He allowed the film crew to follow him because of the unspeakable acts of violence he had committed against women, children and immigrants. As he lures the film crew out from behind the camera, they increasingly become complicit in his crimes — and so does everyone in the **.
Tenants: The Story of London Fog
Alfred Hitchcock has officially launched his fourth silent film, which is based on the search for Jack the Ripper. Matinee idol Ivor Novello plays a titular London boarding house resident who has been accused of being the author of a recent series of cases due to bad timing and bad luck. Many of Hitchcock's major works originated here. A person who has been wrongly accused?View. A group of dead blonde women?View. The man himself made a cameo?View. But The Tenant isn't just a prologue to a career that will become even more legendary in the coming decades, it's a truly exciting entry.
Syracuse
Snowtown, a dramatic account of a ** frenzy that took place in an impoverished suburb of Australia in the 90s of the 20th century, along with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, as a film that successfully dismantled the fourth wall of the audience's negative attitude towards unspeakable violence. First-time director Justin Kuzel goes out of his way to tell the true story of a battered teenager who is "coached" by a madman after helping to scare his mother's pedophile boyfriend out of the community. It's not "funny" in itself – some critics have called it a glorified snuff film – but it's undeniably compelling ......If you can put up with it.
Arsenic with old lace
This classic adaptation of Joseph Kesselring's black comedy, about two kind-hearted older sisters who love to poison a bachelor, is a departure from Frank Capra's healthy heartwarming film, but it's still one of his best works. The film was shot quickly and cheaply before Capra served in World War II, with Raymond Marcy playing the sisters' nephew, who himself has homicidal tendencies, and John Alexander playing another family member who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt, and his crazy performance is impressive. Gary Grant, in particular, as a theater critic, came to realize that his family might be crazy.
Monsters
In Patty Jenkins, a disturbing psychological drama, Charlize Theron not only "gorgeously" plays the real-life prostitute-turned-killer Erin Warnos. Driven by financial hardship, unspeakable personal trauma, and an aversion to customers, Urnos killed and robbed 7 men in Florida in the early 90s of the 20th century;She was executed by lethal injection in 2002. Instead of justifying her actions, Jenkins' films demonstrate a true understanding of the socioeconomic conditions that led to them. Theron's play of the protagonist is indeed superb. She goes far beyond the transformation of the superficial image, and in Urnos, she is a fully awake, deeply troubled person, presenting her as a real person rather than a sensational tabloid figure. She deserves all the awards she has won for her performance, including the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's slow tale is more of a philosophical horror than a psychological thriller, telling the story of a detective who is puzzled by a series of strange, seemingly unrelated cases. In each case, the offender was at the scene of the crime** but did not remember the crime and did not have any apparent motive. Admittedly, the film may test the patience of some viewers: Akira Kurosawa is more concerned with atmosphere and big questions than with linear storytelling and simple answers. But stick with it, and after the film ends, you'll find yourself still thinking about the movie for a long time.
25.Tiger's mouthCruising
The thriller directed by William Friedkin caused controversy upon its release, starring Al Pacino as a police officer who is hunting down a hitman who is plundering the S&M underground in New York, but is met with ** by gay rights groups and critics. But hey, that's Friedkin. He's a brilliant demagogue, and while it's hard to say that time has softened its presentation of the queer community, its hallucinatory tone, combined with Pacino's impeccable performance, is undeniably mesmerizing.
Sam's Summer
This Zodiac serial killer film, co-filmed with Spike Lee, is set in the case of Sam's Son ** and shows how shared trauma can affect a city and its citizens. The cast, which includes Adrien Brody, John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino and Jennifer Esposito, depicts the neighbors of Brooklyn's Italian-American Quarter in the late '70s of the 20th century, when the summer by D**id Berkowitz A series of horrific cases were created that paralyzed New York. As fear spreads and the heat rises, tensions among the residents increase, making this a strange, informal sequel to Do the Right Thing.
Shadows
An American ** promoting his new book in Rome was ridiculed by a killer who seemed to be guided by his work. This fairly standard case setting is a springboard for Gialo Argento to stage some shockingly brutal executions of deaths, though those executions are still shocking, most notably a woman's arm chopped off with an axe with an almost comical blood gushing.
Grotesque
In this brilliant "swapping bodies" comedy, Vince Vaughn plays a murderer whose crazy consciousness is magically transferred to a teenage girl (Catherine Newton) and vice versa. It's hard to believe that it took so long for anyone to come up with the idea, and director Christopher Langdon succeeded on this premise, making a film that was both hilarious and bloody.
Hunters
What could be scarier than Brian Cox playing an immoral ** giant in The War of Succession?How about Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecter?Despite being overshadowed by Anthony Hopkins' later role, Cox brought his own stamp on the role of cinema's most famous high-IQ murderer. Michael Mann's film adaptation of Thomas Harris's was a box office fiasco, but after the success of The Silence of the Lambs, it was re-evaluated as a tense and stylish thriller with a brilliant take on one of the film's best villains. Fifteen years later, Anthony Hopkins remade "The Hunter," using the title of Harris's original book, "Red Dragon."
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Based on Patrick Suskind's best-seller**, adapted from Patrick Suskind's best-seller**, it tells the story of the talented 18th-century French perfumer Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, about his obsession with bottling feminine scents, so he distilled their essence through young women. No matter how disappointing the story is, Tikway makes up for it with stunning gorgeous cinematography and some truly jaw-dropping shots, including a climactic scene where Grenouille is overwhelmed by a crowd who believe he is an angel.