What is it about serial killer movies that draws us in? If there were ever any doubt about our appetite for stories of evil, we’d only need to look at the sheer number of films made about them. Maybe it’s the unnerving idea that evil walks among us — and this is the closest we’re willing to come to danger without becoming a target ourselves. Or maybe we’re simply fascinated by what human beings are capable of at their worst. Whatever the reason, our love of the genre is undeniable. There’s no shortage of picks, but these are our top choices for the best serial killer movies of all time.
What are the best serial killer movies of all time?
Before we get into this, let’s distinguish serial killer movies from slasher flicks, Hitchcockian thrillers, or movies featuring characters who get pushed a little too far. For this list, a serial killer movie requires a murderer with a methodical, extremely compulsive intent to kill. These killers are smart enough to evade capture (for a time, anyway) and often take a disturbing amount of satisfaction in the ongoing game of cat-and-mouse.
There are plenty of great entries in this subgenre; these are just our top picks, organized in chronological order.
Badlands (1973)
Long before the modern serial killer film took shape, Terrence Malick’s Badlands offered something only this filmmaker could. Should we say Badlands is perhaps the most beautiful serial killer film ever made? Well, it would be easy. Loosely inspired by the real-life killing spree of Charles Starkweather, the film follows Kit (Martin Sheen), a garbage collector with James Dean aspirations, and Holly (Sissy Spacek), the teenage girl who falls under his spell. After Kit kills Holly’s father, the two flee into the South Dakota badlands, drifting from one senseless murder to the next.
This film may disappoint any thriller lover looking for compounding dread, fear, violence — all that we tend to love about this particular genre. Malick’s film isn’t a high-octane crime thriller, even though it technically qualifies as a serial-killer flick by the characters’ actions and kill count. Still, Malick manages to drench this film in beauty. It’s dreamy, almost detached, and observant as the action unfolds. Holly narrates — one of the hallmarks of Malick’s aesthetic — in a flat, girlish tone that contrasts eerily with the violence unfolding onscreen.
Manhunter (1986)
Before The Silence of the Lambs made Hannibal Lecter a household name, Michael Mann’s Manhunter laid the groundwork. Also pulling from Thomas Harris’s novel Red Dragon, the film follows FBI profiler Will Graham (William L. Petersen) as he’s pulled out of retirement and sent back into the field to hunt a serial killer known as “The Tooth Fairy,” named for the bite marks he leaves on his victims. The crimes are brutal and disturbingly intimate, with more than enough creepiness baked into their ritualistic nature.
Graham enlists the help of another deranged mind: cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (Brian Cox). This is where we really get a sense of Mann’s signature style—cool neon lighting, themes of duality, meticulous compositions, and a masterclass in building dread on screen. Though the film fared poorly at the box office upon release, it’s since earned its reputation as a classic.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Another defining film from the golden age of ’90s thrillers, The Silence of the Lambs stars Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, one of the FBI’s brightest trainees at the Academy in Quantico. Behavioral Science chief Jack Crawford recruits her to interview imprisoned serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins in what may be his most iconic role, one that won him his first Oscar). The hope is that Lecter’s insight, drawn from his keen intellect and personal experience, might help agents track down Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who kidnaps women and removes their skin.
There’s so much good that can be said about this movie, which was directed by Jonathan Demme with a script by Ted Tally from Thomas Harris’ novel. If you haven’t watched it yet, make it a priority. The trilogy with Anthony Hopkins is all good; the sequel, Hannibal (2001), is a bit of a letdown, though the prequel, Red Dragon (2002), is solid. The fourth film, Hannibal Rising, is unfortunately abysmal.
Se7en (1995)
Maybe the best serial-killer movie ever made, Se7en is a David Fincher classic and the reason we can’t help but yell “What’s in the box?!” whenever a wrapped package appears in our lives.
Jokes aside, the film follows a pair of detectives (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) hunting a serial killer whose murders are meticulously designed as punishment for the seven deadly sins. The film also features a deeply unsettling Kevin Spacey as the killer. Drenched in grimy ’90s noir, Se7en firmly put Fincher on the map as one of the great crime filmmakers. (We’re still waiting for Mindhunter to come back — rumors abound.)
Cure (1997)
Written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Cure follows Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) as he investigates a string of grisly murders that share unusual similarities. All are committed under bizarre circumstances and without any apparent motive. The perpetrators confess to their crimes, yet none can remember committing them or explain why they did. As the clues dry up and the investigation drags on, Takabe grows increasingly frustrated—until he and his partner, forensic psychologist Shin Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), discover one common thread linking the suspects together.
Cure is another serial killer movie that serves as a masterclass in dread and style. The film was directly inspired by the tone and brilliance of Fincher’s Se7en, as Kurosawa wanted it to feel like an American detective movie, while also doing something different with the central protagonist. Often, protagonists in this genre can feel flat and unchanging. If that was his objective, Kurosawa absolutely nailed it.
Memories of Murder (2003)
Though Parasite put Bong Joon-ho on the map in Western media, he’s long been making films well worth watching. This one plays out similarly in style and pacing to Fincher’s Zodiac, though Memories of Murder came out four years earlier. As a point of comparison for whether this film might be up your alley, the premise is also somewhat similar.
Based on South Korea’s first documented serial murder case, the film focuses more on the hunt for the killer than the killer himself. In rural South Korea in 1986, two detectives are assigned to investigate a double murder. As the case expands and more bodies appear, they slowly begin to realize they’re dealing with a serial killer. While the film starts darkly funny and procedural, the tension curdles into something far more disturbing — Korean thrillers tend to take us places American movies may not always go. Often overlooked in favor of other serial killer movies, Memories of Murder still deserves a spot near the top of any must-watch list.
If you’re looking for another South Korean serial killer movie, though, much more vigilante cop vs. killer, I Saw the Devil might be worth a watch. Expect a lot more violence with this one, though.
Monster (2003)
Monster was the film that transformed Charlize Theron from movie star into something far more formidable. Based on the true story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, the film follows Wuornos, a Daytona Beach sex worker who begins killing her clients, claiming self-defense. What could have been a lurid true-crime retelling instead becomes something far more intimate and tragic. So before you’re ready to jump in and park your expectations. Monster will probably subvert all of them anyway.
Directed by Patty Jenkins, the film centers on Wuornos’ volatile relationship with Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), a young woman she falls in love with. Though Theron’s physical transformation is striking, her performance is one for the books. Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and deservedly so. This is a serial killer film that refuses easy answers, asking instead how poverty, trauma, isolation, and heartbreak can calcify into something monstrous. Robert Ebert also gave it a four-out-of-four-star review.
Zodiac (2007)
For another David Fincher entry on our list, we offer Zodiac, which may also be one of the most meticulous serial killer films ever made. This is what we’d consider a different approach to the serial-killer genre, as Fincher keeps the audience as frustrated as the investigators. All of us are always one step behind the killer in one of the most complex cases ever, which is still technically considered unsolved.
The film was based on the real-life Zodiac murders that terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s and 70s. While we do get some interactions with the killer, the drama centers on the investigation led by cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), and Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) as they attempt to decode the killer’s cryptic letters before the next body is found.
Unlike most serial killer thrillers, Zodiac isn’t built around jump scares. Fincher is clearly far more interested in the obsession of this cryptic game and how the case seeps into the lives of the men chasing it. There’s violence to be sure, and when it appears, it’s sudden and deeply unsettling. Still, this thriller functions more like a crime procedural, with paperwork, interviews, intense conversational dialogue, and dead ends. The subtlety of this film is one of the reasons it keeps coming up on best-of lists.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Equal parts serial-killer thriller and Western neo-noir, No Country for Old Men was the Coen Brothers’ hit that swept the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel, the film opens in 1980 as vicious hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem in his Oscar-winning role) escapes custody after brutally killing a sheriff and stealing a car, dispatching its driver with a cattle bolt.
As he travels, he flips a coin to determine the fate of anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. Technically, Chigurh qualifies as a serial killer — he just happens to be paid. But beyond the body count, he’s on a mission: tracking down $2 million lost in a drug deal gone wrong. The money has been picked up by ordinary hunter Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), who stumbled upon the aftermath in the desert. Now Chigurh is after Moss — and law enforcement isn’t far behind.
Watcher (2022)
This often-overlooked serial killer film feels like Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window relocated to the cold stillness of Eastern Europe. Watcher stars Maika Monroe as Julia, an American who moves to Bucharest with her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman), for his job. Soon, rumors swirl about a serial killer known as “The Spider,” and Julia begins to feel she’s being watched.
She notices a man across the street from her apartment who appears to be staring into her window. Then she starts seeing him elsewhere — in the grocery store, on the street — and becomes convinced he’s following her. Despite raising her concerns, no one really believes her. Written and directed by Chloe Okuno, the film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. If you’re looking for a serial killer story where the dread builds slowly and crescendos into a jaw-dropping final act, this is an easy pick.
How we picked the best serial killer movies of all time
Though there are plenty of great serial killer movies out there, we narrowed our choices down to the ones that left the most significant mark on cinema history. A few were left off the list due to their proximity to other films already mentioned — a big reason Zodiac earned an honorable mention instead of an official entry. We wanted to diversify our list a bit.
Cruising, Man Bites Dog, and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer are also strong runners-up. Terrence Malick’s Badlands is an excellent film in its own right; though it doesn’t necessarily jump out as a serial-killer movie, it should be required viewing for any movie lover. Though we intentionally left out Hitchcock, Psycho had a major impact on the genre and is also required viewing.