Paste's 50 Best Serial Killer Movies
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"As recently as 2017, it was estimated by one nonprofit organization studying unsolved murders in the FBI database that there may be as many as 2,000 serial killers active in the United States at any given time.
Suffice it to say, they’re not all the stuff of classic horror movie plotting. Few are cannibals. Few live in rambling old mansions with secret passages and a private dungeon in the basement. Even fewer leave behind fiendishly complex cryptographs for a harried, chainsmoking detective and his partner to debate over plates of greasy diner eggs and black coffee. The more frightening reality is that many of them pass as the “average” people we interact with every day. That’s how these stories seem to go: A serial killer is not the sinister-looking stranger who just rolled into town; it’s that quiet next door neighbor who “kept to himself, mostly.”
Perhaps that’s why cinema has such a fascination with the more grandiose, manic version of the serial killer—these stories thrill us even as they’re distracting us from the more pressing danger and mundanity of everyday evil. Regardless, the concept of “a killer on the loose” has been rich cinematic soil for almost as long as film has existed. Go all the way back to 1920’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and what you basically have is a serial killer story—albeit, one in which the murders are being carried out by a hypnotized somnambulist. But the point stands.
Below, we’ve gathered the 50 greatest films about serial killers: a nightmare gallery of murderers both fantastical and disturbingly everyday. Granted, there are a lot of films about people getting killed serially—too many to take into consideration and compare without some basic parameters. So, here’s how we’re operating:
The killers in these films must be human. Vampires, werewolves and giant sharks all kill serially, but they’re not “serial killers” per se.
The killers can’t possess any overt supernatural powers or abilities. They can’t be ghosts, or undead revenants. This means, for example, that Michael Myers of Halloween is still able to qualify, as he is definitely a human being, whereas Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th or Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street do not, given that one is (typically) an undead golem and the other is a supernatural dream monster.
Ultimately, these are all stories about genuine human beings killing other human beings. Got it?
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1 new
Psycho
1960, in 39 top lists Check -
2 new
The Silence of the Lambs
1991, in 36 top lists Check -
3 new
Zodiac
2007, in 14 top lists Check -
4 new
The Night of the Hunter
1955, in 34 top lists Check -
5 new
Badlands
1973, in 23 top lists Check -
6 new
Peeping Tom
1960, in 20 top lists Check -
7 new
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder
1931 — a.k.a. M, in 35 top lists Check -
8 new
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1974, in 15 top lists Check -
9 new
Se7en
1995, in 29 top lists Check -
10 new
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
1920 — a.k.a. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, in 30 top lists Check -
11 new
Monster
2003, in 3 top lists Check -
12 new
The Honeymoon Killers
1970 — a.k.a. The Lonely Hearts Killers, in 5 top lists Check -
13 new
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
2006, in 1 top list Check -
14 new
Arsenic and Old Lace
1944, in 9 top lists Check -
15 new
Halloween
1978, in 17 top lists Check -
16 new
Opera
1987, in 2 top lists Check -
17 new
Scream
1996, in 8 top lists Check -
18 new
Spoorloos
1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 15 top lists Check -
19 new
Salinui chueok
2003 — a.k.a. Memories of Murder, in 17 top lists Check -
20 new
Ang-ma-reul bo-at-da
2010 — a.k.a. I Saw the Devil, in 3 top lists Check -
21 new
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
1986, in 7 top lists Check -
22 new
Les yeux sans visage
1960 — a.k.a. Eyes Without a Face, in 14 top lists Check -
23 new
Frailty
2001, in 1 top list Check -
24 new
American Psycho
2000, in 12 top lists Check -
25 new
C'est arrivé près de chez vous
1992 — a.k.a. Man Bites Dog, in 12 top lists Check -
26 new
The Bad Seed
1956, in 5 top lists Check -
27 new
Forbrydelsens element
1984 — a.k.a. The Element of Crime, in 4 top lists Check -
28 new
6 donne per l'assassino
1964 — a.k.a. Blood and Black Lace, in 2 top lists Check -
29 new
Creep
2014, in 1 top list Check -
30 new
Profondo rosso
1975 — a.k.a. Deep Red, in 9 top lists Check -
31 new
Manhunter
1986, in 6 top lists Check -
32 new
I Am Not a Serial Killer
2016, in 0 top lists Check -
33 new
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
2006, in 0 top lists Check -
34 new
Black Christmas
1974, in 3 top lists Check -
35 new
Frenzy
1972, in 7 top lists Check -
36 new
Tenebre
1982 — a.k.a. Tenebrae, in 4 top lists Check -
37 new
The Cell
2000, in 1 top list Check -
38 new
Cruising
1980, in 2 top lists Check -
39 new
Maniac
2012, in 1 top list Check -
40 new
Deranged
1974 — a.k.a. Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile, in 1 top list Check -
41 new
Death Proof
2007, in 3 top lists Check -
42 new
Black Widow
1987, in 1 top list Check -
43 new
Serial Mom
1994, in 2 top lists Check -
44 new
Creep 2
2017, in 0 top lists -
45 new
God Bless America
2011, in 0 top lists Check -
46 new
Summer of Sam
1999, in 0 top lists Check -
47 new
The Hitcher
1986, in 2 top lists Check -
48 new
The Clovehitch Killer
2018, in 0 top lists -
49 new
Hannibal
2001, in 2 top lists Check -
50 new
Mil gritos tiene la noche
1982 — a.k.a. Pieces, in 2 top lists Check
Last updated on Oct 14, 2021 by Teproc;