Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keywords "childhood-trauma", "sadist"

1. Dexter (2006–2013)

TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

He's smart. He's lovable. He's Dexter Morgan, America's favorite serial killer, who spends his days solving crimes and nights committing them.

Stars: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas, James Remar

Votes: 764,132

2. Doctor Sleep (2019)

R | 152 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

Years following the events of The Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance must protect a young girl with similar powers from a cult known as The True Knot, who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.

Director: Mike Flanagan | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis

Votes: 218,196 | Gross: $31.58M

3. Dolores Claiborne (1995)

R | 132 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

A big city reporter travels to a small town where her mother has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman for whom she worked as a housekeeper.

Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer, Judy Parfitt

Votes: 48,324 | Gross: $24.36M

4. Don't Breathe (2016)

R | 88 min | Crime, Horror, Thriller

Hoping to walk away with a massive fortune, a trio of thieves break into the house of a blind man who isn't as helpless as he seems.

Director: Fede Alvarez | Stars: Stephen Lang, Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto

Votes: 300,145 | Gross: $89.22M

5. Sleepers (1996)

R | 147 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, an unexpected random encounter with a former guard gives them a chance for revenge.

Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric

Votes: 237,406 | Gross: $49.10M

6. Sleepaway Camp (1983)

R | 84 min | Horror

Bunks and showers are a mad stabber's beat at a summer camp strictly for teens.

Director: Robert Hiltzik | Stars: Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, Christopher Collet

Votes: 37,990 | Gross: $11.00M

7. Night Hunter (2018)

R | 98 min | Action, Thriller

A weathered Lieutenant, his police force, and a local vigilante are all caught up in a dangerous scheme involving a troubled, recently-arrested man who's linked to years of female abductions and murders.

Director: David Raymond | Stars: Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, Alexandra Daddario, Stanley Tucci

Votes: 26,966

8. Mysterious Skin (2004)

Unrated | 105 min | Drama

Two pre-adolescent boys both experienced a strange event and later it affects their lives in different ways. One becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.

Director: Gregg Araki | Stars: Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Chase Ellison

Votes: 76,224 | Gross: $0.70M

9. Prodigal Son (2019–2021)

TV-14 | 44 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Malcolm Bright, a former FBI profiler, is the son of a serial killer and suspects that he himself might become a sociopath. He solves crimes for the NYPD as a form of absolution for his upbringing.

Stars: Tom Payne, Lou Diamond Phillips, Halston Sage, Aurora Perrineau

Votes: 23,534

10. Serenity (I) (2019)

R | 106 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

A fishing boat captain juggles facing his mysterious past and finding himself ensnared in a reality where nothing is what it seems.

Director: Steven Knight | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Jason Clarke

Votes: 45,345 | Gross: $8.55M

11. The Good Son (1993)

R | 87 min | Drama, Thriller

A young boy stays with his aunt and uncle and becomes friends with his cousin, a boy of the same age who shows increasing signs of violent and psychopathic behavior.

Director: Joseph Ruben | Stars: Macaulay Culkin, Elijah Wood, Wendy Crewson, David Morse

Votes: 45,724 | Gross: $44.59M

12. Elfen Lied (2004)

TV-MA | 24 min | Animation, Action, Drama

Two university students come across a seemingly harmless girl named Lucy, unaware that she's actually a mutant serial killer with a split personality.

Stars: Sanae Kobayashi, Chihiro Suzuki, Mamiko Noto, Sam Saletta

Votes: 36,857

13. Black Lagoon (2006)

TV-MA | 25 min | Animation, Action, Adventure

A Japanese businessman, captured by modern-day pirates, is written off and left for dead by his company. Tired of the corporate life, he opts to stick with the mercenaries that kidnapped him, becoming part of their gang.

Stars: Megumi Toyoguchi, Daisuke Namikawa, Brad Swaile, Maryke Hendrikse

Votes: 17,864

14. Child 44 (2015)

R | 137 min | Crime, Drama, History

A disgraced member of the Russian military police investigates a series of child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union.

Director: Daniel Espinosa | Stars: Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman

Votes: 75,745 | Gross: $1.21M

15. The Eyes of My Mother (2016)

R | 76 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

In their secluded farmhouse, a mother (a former surgeon) teaches her daughter, Francisca, anatomy, and how life and death are not to be feared. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor shatters ... See full summary »

Director: Nicolas Pesce | Stars: Kika Magalhães, Will Brill, Olivia Bond, Paul Nazak

Votes: 14,441 | Gross: $0.03M

16. Deadman Wonderland (2011)

TV-MA | 24 min | Animation, Action, Drama

After being falsely convicted for the murder of his entire class, a young man must learn to survive in a mysterious prison with a perverted take on incarceration while also looking to clear his name.

Stars: Monica Rial, Greg Ayres, Kana Hanazawa, Romi Park

Votes: 11,986

17. The Method (2015– )

TV-MA | 53 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

An ambitious young law enforcement graduate is thrilled when her idol takes her on as a trainee. But his methods aren't anything like she imagined.

Stars: Konstantin Khabenskiy, Paulina Andreeva, Kirill Polukhin, Alexander Petrov

Votes: 3,323

18. Dread (2009)

R | 98 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

Three college students set out to document what other people dread the most. However, one of the three turns out to secretly be a sadistic psychopath who uses this knowledge to gruesomely torture the subjects.

Director: Anthony DiBlasi | Stars: Jackson Rathbone, Hanne Steen, Laura Donnelly, Jonathan Readwin

Votes: 12,963

19. The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)

R | 83 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

A disturbed woman is haunted by memories of childhood abuse, which culminates in a murder spree.

Director: Matt Cimber | Stars: Millie Perkins, Lonny Chapman, Vanessa Brown, Peggy Feury

Votes: 2,544

20. A Christmas Carol (2019)

TV-MA | 43 min | Drama, Fantasy

In Steven Knight's gothic adaptation of Charles Dickens' iconic ghost story, Ebenezer Scrooge experiences a dark night of the soul - past, present and future.

Stars: Guy Pearce, Andy Serkis, Stephen Graham, Joe Alwyn

Votes: 12,545

21. Feed (2005)

Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Horror, Thriller

A cybercrime investigator tracks a man suspected of force-feeding women to death.

Director: Brett Leonard | Stars: Alex O'Loughlin, Patrick Thompson, Gabby Millgate, Jack Thompson

Votes: 6,071

22. Don't Go in the House (1979)

R | 82 min | Horror

A disturbed young man who was burned as a child by his sadistic mother stalks women with a flamethrower.

Director: Joseph Ellison | Stars: Dan Grimaldi, Charles Bonet, Bill Ricci, Robert Carnegie

Votes: 5,230

23. Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

R | 96 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

After 13 years in prison, the mad scientist from Re-Animator (1985) gets a new chance to experiment with the arrival of a young prison doctor, who secretly hopes to learn to reanimate dead people. Good intentions turn to horror.

Director: Brian Yuzna | Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Tommy Dean Musset, Jason Barry, Bárbara Elorrieta

Votes: 13,013

24. Red White & Blue (2010)

Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Thriller

A woman attracts the attention of a psychopathic former Army interrogator and an emotionally fragile young man caring for his depressed mother.

Director: Simon Rumley | Stars: Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter, Jon Michael Davis, Nick Holden

Votes: 6,145

25. The Influence (2019)

TV-MA | 99 min | Horror

After moving back to her family home to care for her dying mother, a nurse haunted by her childhood memories must struggle with an evil force in the house.

Director: Denis Rovira van Boekholt | Stars: Manuela Vellés, Maggie Civantos, Alain Hernández, Claudia Placer

Votes: 4,187

26. Shrew's Nest (2014)

Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

1950s Madrid: The agoraphobic Montse raised her now 18 y.o. kid sister. The upstairs neighbor falls down the stairs and breaks a leg. The crazy Montse takes him in.

Directors: Juanfer Andrés, Esteban Roel | Stars: Macarena Gómez, Nadia de Santiago, Hugo Silva, Luis Tosar

Votes: 7,724

27. Under Your Bed (2019)

98 min | Drama, Thriller

Naoto was ignored by other people. During his school days, Chihiro was the first person who called his name. Naoto dreams of seeing her again and tries to find her. Finally, after 11 years,... See full summary »

Director: Mari Asato | Stars: Ken'ichi Abe, Kengo Kôra, Yûgo Mikawa, Ryôsuke Miyake

Votes: 550

28. China Gate (1998)

175 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

10 old exiled army men decide to free a village from an evil bandit

Director: Rajkumar Santoshi | Stars: Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Danny Denzongpa

Votes: 1,820

29. Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979)

R | 105 min | Drama

An abusive sexual relationship between a white spinster schoolteacher and a young black janitor in 1956 Kansas complicates her struggle to come to grips with her sexuality and emotions.

Director: Marvin J. Chomsky | Stars: Anne Heywood, Donald Pleasence, Robert Vaughn, Earl Holliman

Votes: 455

30. The Killer of Dolls (1975)

98 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

A groundskeeper's son, who is mentally unstable due to childhood trauma, goes on a murdering spree where his perception of reality is distorted by imagining people as mannequins and vice versa.

Director: Miguel Madrid | Stars: David Rocha, Inma de Santis, Helga Liné, Elisenda Ribas

Votes: 391

31. Body of Influence 2 (1996)

R | 87 min | Drama, Thriller

The relationship between a psychoanalyst and his seductive, unhappily married patient troubled by psycho-sexual nightmares becomes dangerously intimate as they gradually reveal dark secrets from their pasts.

Director: Brian J. Smith | Stars: Jodie Fisher, Daniel D. Anderson, Jonathan Goldstein, Pat Brennan

Votes: 204

32. Captifs (2010)

Not Rated | 84 min | Horror, Thriller

A group of medical aid workers in Kosovo are kidnapped by a Serbian gang of organ traffickers.

Director: Yann Gozlan | Stars: Zoé Félix, Eric Savin, Arié Elmaleh, Ivan Franek

Votes: 2,366

33. Eating Schoolgirls: Osaka Telephone Club (1997)

60 min | Horror

Directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu,"Eat the Schoolgirl" concerns two young adults who made a dirty work for a yakuza gang by making sadistic rape/snuff films. Both of them are sexually obsessed;... See full synopsis »

Director: Naoyuki Tomomatsu | Stars: Yuuki Fujita, Michiru Katô, Kozue Aoki, Shirô Misawa

Votes: 457

34. Hollywood Horror House (1970)

R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller

An aging actress living in her Hollywood mansion with a retinue of elderly servants employs a new, mentally disturbed, personal assistant who schemes to take over the large estate.

Director: Donald Wolfe | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, David Garfield, Gale Sondergaard, Virginia Wing

Votes: 533

35. Chinese Torture Chamber Story 2 (1998)

Unrated | 93 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

Two bandits and their female partners accost a mysterious and talented traveler who seems destined for great things, but who has a secret taste for torture.

Director: Kin-Nam Cho | Stars: Mark Cheng, Yolinda Yam, Wai-Kin Lam, Fan Yeung

Votes: 608

36. Bloody Reunion (2006)

Not Rated | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Buried grudges have disasterous consequences for a class reunion in this unapologetically bloody film from Korean director Dae-wung Lim.

Director: Dae-wung Lim | Stars: Lee Dong-kyu, Seong-won Jang, Seol-ah Yu, Oh Mi-hee

Votes: 2,621

37. Gunaah (2002)

135 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

Tough cop Prabha (Bipasha Basu) is haunted by the demons of her past. Being an illegitimate daughter of a prostitute, she has had a very bad childhood and there once occurred an incident in... See full summary »

Director: Amol Shetge | Stars: Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea, Ashutosh Rana, Banjara

Votes: 401

38. Ab-normal Beauty (2004)

R | 101 min | Drama, Horror

Jiney is a talented student of Arts with a trauma in her childhood and lack of communication with her mother, and excellent photographer that is not satisfied with her awarded works. When ... See full summary »

Director: Oxide Chun Pang | Stars: Race Wong, Rosanne Wong, Anson Leung, Michelle Yim

Votes: 2,601

39. Voices (2007)

R | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Horror

This creepy, supernatural thriller revolves around the paranoid belief that those dearest to you may want you dead.

Director: Ki-hwan Oh | Stars: Jin-Seo Yoon, Park Gi-woong, Lee Ki-woo, Yu-seon Ham

Votes: 1,416

40. The Good Son (1993 Video)

Not Rated | Drama, Thriller

A audiobook of 'The Good Son' narrated by John Glover, based on the novel by Todd Strasser.

Star: John Glover

41. The Dark Side of Porn (2005–2006)
Episode: Me and My Slaves (2006)

61 min | Documentary

Rick is a sado-masochist 'slave master'. After becoming a Christian, Rick has decided to give up his old life and find a new life away from s&m.

Director: David Barrie

Votes: 54

42. The Mark of a Killer (2019– )
Episode: Collar and Leash Killer (2020)

TV-14 | 43 min | Documentary, Crime

A string of women are found dead by the side of the road with a unique ligature. Detectives are stumped until a 17-year-old girl manages an escape from a vicious kidnapper, leading police to a serial killer.

Directors: Chad Cunningham, Wendy Greene | Stars: Cindy Brown, Stephen Cribb, J.T. Hunter, John Marsicano

Votes: 14

43. Panorama (1953– )
Episode: The Ultimate Taboo (1997)

Documentary, News

Spotlight on female pedophiles and child rapists, mothers who sexually abuse their children, sexually abusive aunts, nuns and teachers, mothers who get the fathers to join in on the abuse, and the circle of violence they create.

Star: Sue Pennington