Unspeakable Times
The Best Movies About the Search for a Serial Killer
List Rules
Vote up the top films that feature detectives on the hunt for elusive serial killers.
Serial killers can be chillingly crafty when it comes to evading the law, but, in time, smart detectives always crack the case. The best movies about the search for a serial killer feature dedicated cops using every tool available to stop more killings from taking place. This is a list of the top movies featuring a hunt for a serial killer, including everything from No Country for Old Men to American Psycho to Zodiac.
What active serial killer movies frighten you the most? There's no denying the terrifying power of The Silence of the Lambs. FBI cadet Clarice Starling (Jodi Foster) enlists the help of imprisoned murderer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to assist her in stopping the Buffalo Bill serial killer from striking again. The film earned Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Seven is another acclaimed film about detectives searching for a serial killer. Everyone in New York City was on the look out for the Son of Sam serial killer in Spike Lee's film Summer of Sam. Other good movies featured on this list include Frailty, M, and Kiss the Girls.
Do you have a favorite film about a detective hunting a serial killer? Give the best movies a thumbs up and add any scary flicks that are missing.list ordered by
- Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant ...more
- When retiring police Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) tackles a final case with the aid of newly transferred David Mills (Brad Pitt), they discover a number of elaborate and grizzly ...more
- FBI profiler Terry McCaleb (Clint Eastwood) was hot on the trail of "The Code Killer" when a heart attack put him out of commission. A heart transplant later, Terry spends his time in the harbor on ...more
- In the late 1960s and 1970s, fear grips the city of San Francisco as a serial killer called Zodiac stalks its residents. Investigators (Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards) and reporters (Jake Gyllenhaal, ...more
- From acclaimed director Chris Nolan ("Memento") comes the story of a veteran police detective (Al Pacino) who is sent to a small Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. Forced into ...more
- While out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds the grisly aftermath of a drug deal. Though he knows better, he cannot resist the cash left behind and takes it with him. The hunter becomes the ...more
- When a string of women in Boston start turning up dead, the police launch an investigation headed by John Bottomly (Henry Fonda). Through chance, Bottomly gets the evidence he needs to arrest Albert ...more
- FBI criminal profiler Will Graham (William L. Petersen) is called out of early retirement to assist on a serial murder case involving a killer known as the "Tooth Fairy" (Tom Noonan). Graham enlists ...more
- A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
- Policewoman Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie) is in hot pursuit of a serial murderer whose calling card is a small shard of bone extracted from each of his victims. Unable to decipher the cryptic clues ...more
- In New York City in 1987, a handsome, young urban professional, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), lives a second life as a gruesome serial killer by night. The cast is filled by the detective (Willem ...more
- Psychopathic serial killer Christopher Gill (Rod Steiger) is obsessed with his late mother, and he targets victims who remind him of her. He dons various disguises to gain his victims' trust and ...more
- FBI agent Jake Harris (Val Kilmer) escorts a group of cadets to a remote island for simulation training. The cadets, under the leadership of J.D. (Christian Slater), will try to catch an imaginary ...more
- 14Deeply shaken after being assaulted by a deranged man (Harry Connick Jr.), Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) must face her fears if she is to help solve a series of murders. Helen is a psychologist ...more
- On a dark road, taxi driver Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) comes across a scared female motorist stranded in a broken-down vehicle. He pulls over -- but not to help her. When the woman's head is ...more
- Successful forensic psychologist Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) discovers that his niece has gone missing. Once he consults with police Detective Nick Ruskin (Cary Elwes), Cross believes that the ...more
- 17Set in present day Texas, "Frailty" centers on the FBI's search for a serial killer who calls himself "God's Hands." McConaughey plays Fenton Meeks, a young man who approaches the lead investigator, ...more
- 18Trick is a 2019 American horror film directed by Patrick Lussier. A small-town detective must stop a serial killer, who goes by the name of Trick, from terrorizing his community.
- 19
Marshland
- 20London is held in the grip of a serial killer whose modus operandi is to murder his victims by strangling them with a necktie. When short-tempered ex-Royal Air Force officer Richard Blaney (Jon ...more
- The first tabloid star of the twentieth century, he remains the most notorious and enigmatic serial killer in history. "From Hell" puts an intense urban spin on the horrific legend of Jack the Ripper ...more
- 22In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and ...more
- During the summer of 1977, a killer known as the Son of Sam keeps all of New York City on edge with a series of brutal murders. The philandering Vinny (John Alberto Leguizamo) unwittingly almost ...more
- Behind the Mask: The Story Of The People Who Risk Everything To Save Animals is a 2006 documentary film about the Animal Liberation Front. It took three years of filming, interviewing, and editing to ...more
