From charming strangler Ted Bundy to “Zodiac Killer”, iconic films have been made about the most unscrupulous murderers to ever exist.
30 Dahmer, 2002
Jeffrey Dahmer
Also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who killed and dismembered seventeen males between 1978 and 1991.
Before his arrest and conviction for serial murders, chocolate factory worker Jeffrey Dahmer hunts Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for young attractive males to turn into unconscious (eventually dead) human sex toys, current acts which often prompt memories of earlier killings and of dealings with his suspicious.
Director: David Jacobson
Writers: David Jacobson, David Birke
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Artel Kayàru, Matt Newton
Budget: $250 000
Box office: $144 000
Trailer:
29 D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear, 2003
John Allen Muhammad, Lee Boyd Malvo
The D.C. sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed, and three others were critically wounded.
In October 2002, Chief Charles Moose of the Montgomery County Police Department, heads an effort to track down those responsible for a recent string of murders in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Unable to give anything but small pieces of information at various press conferences held during the 23 dark days, Moose finds himself vilified and derided in many corners as ineffectual and incompetent. Indeed, quite a few newspapers outside the area targeted by snipers came right out and called for Moose’s resignation. But the chief’s dogged persistence ultimately paid off and — in the sort of twist that a professional writer of thrillers might dismiss as inconceivable — the two men arrested for the carnage turned out to be the archetypal “least likely suspects.”
Director: Tom McLoughlin
Writer: Dave Erickson
Starring: Charles S. Dutton, Jay O. Sanders, Bobby Hosea
Trailer:
28 Ted Bundy, 2002
Ted Bundy
Was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier.
Ted Bundy is a seemingly well-adjusted law student with a bright future ahead. Intelligent and good-looking, Ted has little trouble earning the affections of Lee, a lovely woman who’s willing to look beyond and accept her fiancé’s sometimes lascivious sexual appetites. But little can prepare Lee for the brutal crimes Ted is about to commit: a six-state crime spree comprising over 30 homicides and hundreds of rapes.
Director: Matthew Bright
Writers: Stephen Johnston, Matthew Bright
Starring: Michael Reilly Burke, Boti Bliss, Julianna McCarthy
Budget: $1 200 000
Box office: $68 700
Trailer:
27 Snowtown, 2010
John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner
The Snowtown murders between August 1992 and May 1999, in and around Adelaide, South Australia. Most of the bodies were found in barrels in an abandoned bank vault in Snowtown, South Australia, hence the names given in the press for the murders. Only one of the victims was killed in Snowtown itself, which is approximately 140 kilometres (87 miles) north of Adelaide, and neither the twelve victims nor the three perpetrators were from the town.
A charismatic but violent predator takes his girlfriend’s teenage son (Lucas Pittaway) under his wing and makes him an accomplice in a murder spree.
Director: Justin Kurzel
Writers: Shaun Grant, Justin Kurzel, Debi Marshall
Starring: Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris
Budget: $2 000 000
Box office: $1 349 000
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26 Karla, 2006
Karla Homolka, Paul Bernardo
Is a Canadian serial killer who acted as an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, taking active part in the rapes and murders of at least three minors in Ontario – including her own sister, Tammy Homolka – between 1990 and 1992.
In this film based on actual events, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo seem like a typical suburban couple that is, until Paul is implicated in a series of disturbing killings. It turns out Karla married Paul knowing he had raped and killed several girls, including her own sister, Tammy. As the evidence mounts against Paul, Karla is questioned by Dr. Arnold about her level of involvement in the murders.
Director: Joel Bender
Writers: Michael D. Sellers, Manette Rosen, Joel Bender
Starring: Laura Prepon, Misha Collins, Misha Collins
Budget: $5 000 000
Box office: $130 000
Trailer:
25 Wolf Creek, 2004
Ivan Milat, Bradley John Murdoch
Ivan Milat commonly known as the Backpacker Murderer, was an Australian serial killer who abducted, assaulted, robbed and murdered two men and five women in New South Wales between 1989 and 1992. Bradley John Murdoch is an Australian criminal serving life imprisonment for the July 2001 murder of English backpacker Peter Falconio in Australia.
Three backpackers travel into the Australian Outback only to find themselves stranded at Wolf Creek crater. Once there, they are encountered by a bushman, Mick Taylor, who offers them a ride back to his place. Little do the three know that their adventure into the Outback would be a complete nightmare after the backpackers find a way to escape.
Director: Greg McLean
Writer: Greg McLean
Starring: John Jarratt, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi
Budget: $1 000 000
Box office: $30 765 000
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24 Evilenko, 2004
Andrei Chikatilo
Was a Soviet serial killer nicknamed The Butcher of Rostov, The Rostov Ripper, and The Red Ripper who sexually assaulted, murdered, and mutilated at least fifty-two women and children between 1978 and 1990 in the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Uzbek SSR.
In 1984, in Kyiv, schoolteacher Andrej Romanovich Evilenko is dismissed from his position after attempting to rape a pupil. Driven by his psychopathic urges and embittered by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Evilenko begins to rape, kill, and cannibalise women and children. It is hinted throughout the movie that Evilenko somehow gained the power to hypnotise his victims, which accounts for their lack of resistance and his continuous evasion of the authorities.
Director: David Grieco
Writer: David Grieco
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Marton Csokas, Ronald Pickup
Budget: $9 700 000
Box office: $87 000
Trailer:
23 No Man of God, 2021
Ted Bundy
After more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 murders committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. His true victim total is unknown and likely significantly higher.
In 1980, Ted Bundy was sentenced to death by electrocution. In the years that followed, he agreed to disclose the details of his crimes, but only to one man. During the early days of the agency’s criminal profiling unit, FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier met with the incarcerated Ted Bundy in the hopes of understanding the psychology of the serial killer and providing closure for the victim’s families. As Hagmaier delves into Bundy’s dark and twisted mind, a strange and complicated relationship develops that neither man expected. Based on actual transcripts of interviews between FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier and the incarcerated Ted Bundy, No Man of God is nothing short of riveting.
Director: Amber Sealey
Writer: Kit Lesser
Starring: Elijah Wood, Luke Kirby, W. Earl Brown
Box office: $215 000
Trailer:
22 The Clovehitch Killer, 2016
Dennis Rader
Is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for “bind, torture, kill”). Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, and sent taunting letters to police and media outlets describing the details of his crimes.
After Tyler finds a cache of disturbing images in his father’s possession, he begins to suspect that the man he trusts most in the world may be responsible for a series of unsolved murders.
Director: Duncan Skiles
Writer: Christopher Ford
Starring: Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis
Box office: $167 000
Trailer:
21 The Golden Glove (Der goldene Handschuh), 2019
Fritz Honka
Was a German serial killer. Between 1970 and 1975 he killed at least four women from Hamburg’s red light district, keeping three of the bodies in his flat.
Fritz Honka is a lonely, weird-eyed German man who staggers around even when he isn’t drunk and surprisingly manages to remain employed, once even as a security guard. He is in awe of pretty women and worships them. Scabby old alcoholic women though are taken home, treated poorly, sometimes killed, and their body parts stuffed away in his apartment.
Director: Fatih Akin
Writers: Fatih Akin, Heinz Strunk
Starring: Jonas Dassler, Margarete Tiesel, Katja Studt
Box office: $604 000
Trailer:
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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.
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
Trailer:
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.
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.
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
Trailer:
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 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
Trailer:
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.
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.
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
Trailer:
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.
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
Trailer:
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.
“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.
Trailer:
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.
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
Trailer:
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.
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
Trailer:
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10 Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, 2018
Ted Bundy
Bundy was often regarded as charismatic and handsome, traits he exploited to win the trust of both his victims and society as a whole. He typically approached women in public places, either asking for help by feigning a physical impairment such as an injury, or impersonating an authority figure. Once tricked into being led away, they would be bludgeoned unconscious and taken elsewhere to be sexually assaulted and killed.
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.
Director: Joe Berlinger
Writers: Michael Werwie, Elizabeth Kendall
Starring: Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Kaya Scodelario
Box office: $9 816 000
Trailer:
9 From Hell, 2001
Jack the Ripper
Was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.
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 and unravels a chilling alleged conspiracy involving the highest powers in England.
Directors: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
Writers: Terry Hayes, Rafael Yglesias, Alan Moore
Starring: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm
Budget: $35 000 000
Box office: $74 558 000
Trailer:
8 Longford, 2006
Myra Hindley
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans—aged between 10 and 17, at least four of whom were sexually assaulted.
Biopic of Lord Longford, known for many years for his work with prisoners and prisoners rights in general. The film focuses on Longford’s work on behalf of Myra Hindley convicted, along with her boyfriend Ian Brady, of several child murders. Hindley is nothing short of notorious and even Longord’s wife is shocked when he announces that he will visit her in prison.
Trailer:
7 Monster, 2003
Aileen Wuornos
In 1989–1990, while engaging in street prostitution along highways in Florida, she shot dead and robbed seven of her male clients. Wuornos claimed that her clients had either raped or attempted to rape her, and that the homicides of the men were committed in self-defense.
Shortly after moving to Florida, longtime prostitute Aileen Wuornos meets young and reserved Selby Wall and a romance blossoms. When a john attempts to brutalize Aileen, she kills him and resolves to give up prostitution. But supporting herself and her new girlfriend through legitimate means proves extremely difficult, and she soon falls back on old ways. More johns die, and Selby can’t help but think her new friend is responsible.
Director: Patty Jenkins
Writer: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern
Budget: $18 000 000
Box office: $60 378 000
Trailer:
6 Scream, 1996
Danny Rolling
Known as the Gainesville Ripper, was an American serial killer. He murdered five students in Gainesville, Florida, over four days in August 1990.
The sleepy little town of Woodsboro just woke up screaming. There’s a killer in their midst who’s seen a few too many scary movies. Suddenly nobody is safe, as the psychopath stalks victims, taunts them with trivia questions, then rips them to bloody shreds. It could be anybody…
Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette
Budget: $14 000 000
Box office: $173 046 000
Trailer:
5 In Cold Blood, 1967
Dick Hickock, Perry Smith
In the early morning hours of November 15, 1959, four members of the Clutter family – Herb Clutter, his wife, Bonnie, and their teenage children Nancy and Kenyon – were murdered in their rural home, just outside the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas.
In this adaptation of Truman Capote’s seminal true-crime novel, ex-convicts Perry Smith and Richard “Dick” Hickock hatch a plan to rob a wealthy Kansas family, the Clutters. The men enter the Clutter home expecting to find a safe filled with cash, but in fact find no money at all. Enraged, they kill the entire family and flee. While on the run, they face not only the realities of their terrible crime but also their own earthly impermanence.
Director: Richard Brooks
Writers: Richard Brooks, Truman Capote
Starring: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe
Budget: $3 500 000
Trailer:
4 Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, 2019
Charles Manson
Was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971.
Actor Rick Dalton gained fame and fortune by starring in a 1950s television Western, but is now struggling to find meaningful work in a Hollywood that he doesn’t recognize anymore. He spends most of his time drinking and palling around with Cliff Booth, his easygoing best friend and longtime stunt double. Rick also happens to live next door to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate the filmmaker and budding actress whose futures will forever be altered by members of the Manson Family.
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie
Budget: $90 000 000
Box office: $377 426 000
Trailer:
3 Memories Of Murder (살인의 추억 | Salinui chueok), 2003
Lee Choon-jae
Is a South Korean serial killer known for committing the Hwaseong serial murders. Between 1986 and 1994, Lee murdered 15 women and young girls in addition to committing numerous sexual assaults predominantly in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi and the surrounding areas. The serial murders, which remained unsolved for 30 years, are considered to be the most infamous in South Korea’s modern history.
In 1986, Park and Cho are two simple-minded detectives assigned to a double murder investigation in a South Korean province. But when the murderer strikes several more times with the same pattern, the detectives realize that they are chasing the country’s first documented serial killer. Relying on only their basic skills and tools, Park and Jo attempt to piece together the clues and solve the case in this thriller based on true events.
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Writers: Bong Joon-ho, Shim Seong-bo, Kim Gwang-rim
Starring: Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-gyeong, Kim Roi-ha
Budget: $2 800 000
Box office: $999 000
Trailer:
2 Psycho, 1960
Ed Gein
Gein’s crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered that he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin.
Phoenix secretary Marion Crane, on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel and meets the polite but highly strung proprietor Norman Bates, a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Budget: $806 947
Box office: $32 000 000
Trailer:
1 Zodiac, 2007
Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac murdered five known victims in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969, operating in rural, urban and suburban settings. He targeted young couples and a lone male cab driver.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, fear grips the city of San Francisco as a serial killer called Zodiac stalks its residents. Investigators and reporters become obsessed with learning the killer’s identity and bringing him to justice. Meanwhile, Zodiac claims victim after victim and taunts the authorities with cryptic messages, cyphers and menacing phone calls.
Director: David Fincher
Writers: James Vanderbilt, Robert Graysmith
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards
Budget: $65 000 000
Box office: $84 785 000
Trailer:
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