Best Serial Killer Movies Based on or Inspired by Real Stories


20 The Good Nurse, 2022

Charles Cullen

Is an American serial killer. Cullen, a nurse, murdered dozens, possibly hundreds, of patients during a 16-year career spanning several New Jersey medical centers until being arrested in 2003.
Charles Cullen
The Good Nurse

Suspicious that her colleague is responsible for a series of mysterious patient deaths, a nurse risks her own life to uncover the truth in this gripping thriller based on true events.

Director: Tobias Lindholm
Writers: Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Charles Graeber
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Jessica Chastain, Nnamdi Asomugha
Box office: $14 000

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19 The Frozen Ground, 2011

Robert Hansen

Between 1971 and 1983, Hansen abducted, raped, and murdered at least seventeen women in and around Anchorage, Alaska; he hunted many of them down in the wilderness with a Ruger Mini-14 and a knife.
Robert Hansen
The Frozen Ground

Alaska Trooper Jack Halcombe believes Robert Hansen is a serial killer who abducts young girls, tortures and sexually assaults them, then kills them. However, he doesn’t have enough evidence to get a search warrant for Hansen’s premises. he knows that one victim, Cindy Paulsen, somehow survived, so he decides to seek her help, but he finds that she’s now a junkie with trust issues. Holcombe has to earn her trust; meanwhile, Hansen is still hunting and killing girls.

Director: Scott Walker
Writer: Scott Walker
Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Anne Hudgens
Budget: $27 220 000
Box office: $5 617 000

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18 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003

Ed Gein

Also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher.
Ed Gein
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

In this remake of the horror classic, a group of young travelers, including Erin, Andy and Morgan comes across an isolated rural home while driving through Texas. Unfortunately for them, the decrepit house is the residence of a family of deranged backwoods killers, most notably a hulking masked brute known as Leatherface, who begins to hunt the stranded youths down. Will any of the friends survive the nightmarish ordeal?

Director: Marcus Nispel
Writers: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper, Scott Kosar
Starring: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen
Budget: $29 500 000
Box office: $170 071 000

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17 Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, 1986

Henry Lee Lucas, Ottis Toole

In 1976 Toole met Henry Lee Lucas at a Jacksonville soup kitchen, and they likely developed a sexual relationship. Toole later claimed to have accompanied Lucas in 108 murders, sometimes committed at the behest of a cult called “the Hands of Death”. Police, however, discounted the uncorroborated claim of the cult’s existence.
Henry Lee Lucas, Ottis Toole
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Henry is released from prison following his mother’s murder. He supplements his job as an exterminator with a series of indiscriminate and violent murders. Fellow jailbird and drug dealer Otis becomes a willing accomplice in Henry’s bloody killings. But as the depravity escalates and Henry forms a bond with Otis’ sister, Becky, things start to get out of hand. The film is based on the true-life story of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.

Director: John McNaughton
Writers: Richard Fire, John McNaughton
Starring: Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, Tracy Arnold
Budget: $111 000
Box office: $609 000

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16 Summer of Sam, 1999

David Berkowitz

Also known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who pleaded guilty to eight shootings that began in New York City on July 29, 1976.
David Berkowitz
Summer of Sam

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 unwittingly almost becomes a victim of the psychopath, and soon he and numerous people in his orbit including his wife, Dionna, his punk-rocker friend, Ritchie, and aspiring porn star Ruby are trying to figure out the identity of the killer, before it’s too late.

Director: Spike Lee
Writers: Spike Lee, Victor Colicchio, Michael Imperioli
Starring: John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino
Budget: $37 000 000
Box office: $19 228 000

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15 The Boston Strangler, 1968

Albert DeSalvo

Was an American rapist and suspected serial killer in Boston, Massachusetts, who purportedly confessed to being the “Boston Strangler”, the murderer of thirteen women in the Boston area from 1962 to 1964.
Albert DeSalvo
The Boston Strangler

When a string of women in Boston start turning up dead, the police launch an investigation headed by John Bottomly. Through chance, Bottomly gets the evidence he needs to arrest Albert DeSalvo. Though DeSalvo denies having any connection to the murders at first, the police use hypnosis, pressured interrogation, and interviews with the only surviving victim to coax him into confessing. Still, whether he is truly guilty remains a mystery to many.

Director: Richard Fleischer
Writers: Edward Anhalt, Gerold Frank
Starring: Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy
Budget: $4 100 000
Box office: $17 820 000

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14 The Perfect Patient, 2019

Sture Bergwall (Thomas Quick)

Is a Swedish man previously believed to have been a serial killer, having confessed to more than 30 murders while detained in a mental institution for personality disorders. Between 1994 and 2001, Quick was convicted of eight of these murders.
Sture Bergwall
The Perfect Patient

Is the captivating story about the biggest legal scandal in Swedish history, the story about the reporter who questioned an entire legal system. Hannes Råstam was dedicated to proving the innocence of Thomas Quick and unmask the legal chaos which sentenced Quick to a life in psychiatric prison. However, no one was interested in exonerating and freeing the worst serial killer in Sweden, a cannibalistic rapist who had been sentenced for eight murders and confessed to another twenty-five. This tale lays out a puzzle for the viewer to put together as the incredible story behind the Thomas Quick case is laid bare piece by piece. The audience will be continuously captivated by secret sources and one person’s resilient sense of justice all the way until the overwhelming ending.

Director: Mikael Håfström
Writer: Erlend Loe
Starring: Jonas Karlsson, David Dencik, Alba August
Box office: $156 000

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13 To Catch a Killer, 1992

John Wayne Gacy

Was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys in Norwood Park Township, Illinois, near Chicago.
John Wayne Gacy
To Catch a Killer

“To Catch a Killer” tells the true gruesome story of John Wayne Gacy – a good friend and helpful neighbour, a great child entertainer, a respectful businessman, and a violent serial killer who raped and murdered over 30 young boys.

Director: Eric Till
Writer: Jud Kinberg
Starring: Brian Dennehy, Michael Riley, Margot Kidder

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12 10 Rillington Place, 1970

John Christie

Was an English serial killer and alleged necrophile active during the 1940s and early 1950s. Christie murdered at least eight people—including his wife, Ethel—by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London.
John Christie
10 Rillington Place

A seemingly model citizen living in mid-century London, John Christie is actually a killer. Masquerading as a doctor, he convinces guileless women that he can cure whatever might ail them, and when they follow him to his home, he chokes them to death and buries them in a makeshift graveyard. Based on a series of real-life killings, the story follows John as he cons a pregnant bride and wonders if he might have found a scapegoat in her husband.

Director: Richard Fleischer
Writers: Clive Exton, Ludovic Kennedy
Starring: Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt

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11 Citizen X, 1995

Andrei Chikatilo

Chikatilo confessed to fifty-six murders and was tried for fifty-three of them in April 1992. He was convicted and sentenced to death for fifty-two of these murders in October 1992, although the Supreme Court of Russia ruled in 1993 that insufficient evidence existed to prove his guilt in nine of those killings. Chikatilo was executed by gunshot in February 1994.
Andrei Chikatilo
Citizen X

In the 1980s, serial killer Andrei Chikatilo embarks on an eight-year killing spree, murdering 52 people. Lt. Viktor Burakov wants to put a stop to the killings, but the Soviet bureaucracy obstructs him at every turn, insisting a Communist Party member could not be the killer. Burakov is determined to catch Chikatilo, aided only by his cynical superior and a frightened but determined psychiatrist in this true story.

Director: Chris Gerolmo
Writers: Robert Cullen, Chris Gerolmo
Starring: Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, Jeffrey DeMunn

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