Top Tier True Life Serial Killer Movies
The best of the best movies about real life serial killers and their exploits (not just inspired by). All rated 8+ by Eric Myford, author of The Encyclopedia of Horror & Suspense Movies book series.
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- StarsGeorge DiCenzoSteve RailsbackNancy WolfeThe investigation and trial of the horrific Tate-LaBianca mass murders orchestrated by the psychotic pseudo-hippie cult leader, Charles Manson.
- DirectorJohn GrayStarsJeremy DaviesClea DuVallAllison SmithA new take on the Manson Family murders, with a keen focus on Charles Manson himself.
- DirectorChris GerolmoStarsStephen ReaDonald SutherlandMax von SydowDuring the 1980s, Soviet authorities hunt for a serial killer who picks his victims in railway stations and commuter trains and lures them into the woods.
- DirectorChuck ParelloStarsC. Thomas HowellNicholas TurturroAllison LangeKenneth is obsessed with the police, he moves to LA with his cousin, Angelo convinces him to start a prostitution business. Frustrated decide on revenge, feeling a great pleasure with her death. The two cousins become addicted to death.
- DirectorJohn McNaughtonStarsMichael RookerTracy ArnoldTom TowlesArriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.
- DirectorAlbert HughesAllen HughesStarsJohnny DeppHeather GrahamIan HolmAfter five ritualistic murders are committed in 1888 London, Inspector Abberline's assignment is to investigate the "Jack the Ripper" murders. Along with a string of mutilated prostitutes, he uncovers a conspiracy involving the government.
- DirectorJohn BorowskiStarsOto BrezinaJoe ColemanBob DunsworthA documentary about Albert Fish, who was a sadistic and cannibalistic serial killer.
- DirectorJohn BorowskiStarsTony JayEd BertagnoliCary CallisonTorture chambers, acid vats, greased chutes and gassing rooms were just some of the devices of death designed by the Torture Doctor, H.H. Holmes in his castle of horrors. Follows Holmes' entire life as a criminal mastermind.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsBill BaileyTom WilkinsonMichael SmileyA black comedy about two 19th-century grave robbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school.
- DirectorJulie DelpyStarsJulie DelpyDaniel BrühlWilliam HurtA 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in the blood of virgins will preserve her beauty.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsTony CurtisHenry FondaGeorge KennedyA series of brutal murders in Boston sparks a seemingly endless and increasingly complex manhunt.
- DirectorScott WalkerStarsNicolas CageVanessa HudgensJohn CusackAn Alaska State Trooper partners with a young woman who escaped the clutches of serial killer Robert Hansen to bring the murderer to justice. Based on actual events.
- DirectorJohn BorowskiStarsJohn DiMaggioTom LodewyckDavid SalmonsonThe true story of lifelong criminal and serial killer, Carl Panzram who wrote his autobiography for a jail guard in 1928.
- DirectorHugo FregoneseStarsJack PalanceConstance SmithByron PalmerAfter an enigmatic, self-described pathologist rents the attic room of a Victorian house, his landlady begins to suspect her lodger is Jack the Ripper.
- DirectorNa Hong-jinStarsKim Yoon-seokHa Jung-wooSeo Yeong-hieA disgraced ex-policeman who runs a small ring of prostitutes finds himself in a race against time when one of his women goes missing.
- DirectorChris James ThompsonStarsAndrew SwantPamela BassJeffrey JentzenAn experimental documentary that uses archival footage, interviews, and fictionalized scenarios to tell the story of the people around Jeffrey Dahmer, during the summer of his arrest in 1991.
- DirectorBenjamin RossStarsHugh O'ConorAntony SherTobias ArnoldThis film is based on a true story about a British teenager who allegedly poisoned family, friends, and co-workers. Graham is highly intelligent, but completely amoral. He becomes interested in science, especially chemistry, and begins to read avidly. Something of a social misfit, he is fascinated by morbid subjects such as poisons and murder. His family environment is intolerable to him and, in particular, his stepmother torments him. He decides to poison those who annoy him, first with antimony and later with thallium. He smugly thinks himself cleverer than all those around him, but nevertheless he is caught and sentenced to 'rehabilitation' at a psychiatric institution. Once there, he undertakes to deceive the new eminent psychiatrist sent there to 'cure' him, thereby securing his release.
- DirectorNick BroomfieldJoan ChurchillStarsAileen WuornosNick BroomfieldTerry Humphreys-SlayNick Broomfield's second documentary about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, focusing on her mental state on death row.
- DirectorBong Joon HoStarsSong Kang-hoKim Sang-kyungKim Roe-haIn a small Korean province in 1986, two detectives struggle with the case of multiple young women being found raped and murdered by an unknown culprit.
- DirectorDavid R. BowenStarsCarl CrewCassidy PhillipsDonna Stewart BowenBased on the life of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered 17 men and ate many of them before he was caught in 1991.
- DirectorJustin KurzelStarsLucas PittawayDaniel HenshallLouise HarrisBased on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.
- DirectorCharles B. PierceStarsBen JohnsonAndrew PrineDawn WellsThe story of a hooded, berserk killer who terrorized the border town of Texarkana, Arkansas in 1946--leaving no fewer than five murder victims in his wake. He was never caught. Based on one of America's most baffling murder cases.
- StarsTom KimballKirk GillJack LevinWars have terrorized entire populations for thousands of years. The American West was home to ruthless killers who were idolized in fiction and folklore. Evil evolved to a hideous new form with the genocidal dictators of the 20th Century such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung who ordered the execution of tens of millions. But in the middle of the 20th Century a new and chilling phenomenon emerged in the post-war Western society: The Serial Killer! As if fashioned from our nightmares, they terrified and fascinated us. Lurking behind masks of bland normality, the serial killer often evaded capture for years, decades or eternity. These are America's Serial Killers!
- DirectorNick BroomfieldBarney BroomfieldMarc HoeferlinStarsNick BroomfieldLonnie David Franklin Jr.DonnaNick Broomfield digs into the case of the notorious serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a span of twenty-five years.
- DirectorJoe BerlingerStarsLily CollinsZac EfronAngela SarafyanA chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy from the perspective of Liz, his longtime girlfriend, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
- DirectorJesús FrancoStarsKlaus KinskiJosephine ChaplinHerbert FuxA serial killer whose mother was a prostitute starts killing streetwalkers as a way of paying back his mother for her abuse.
- DirectorÁrpád SopsitsStarsKároly HajdukGábor JászberényiZsolt AngerTrue story of a serial killer in 1950-60s Hungary.
- DirectorMarc MeyersStarsRoss LynchAlex WolffAnne HecheA young Jeffrey Dahmer struggles to belong in high school.
- DirectorNicholas MeyerStarsMalcolm McDowellMary SteenburgenDavid WarnerH.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.
- DirectorMatthew WattsStarsMichael AluffiGary Paul BowmanHarold CartwrightEd Kemper, also known as the Co-Ed Killer, murdered and dismembered 10 people, including his own mother. Former FBI agent John Douglas takes us through his extensive interviews with Kemper, which became the backbone of modern criminal psychology.
- DirectorUlli LommelStarsKurt RaabJeff RodenMargit CarstensenUsing his status as a police informant to procure his victims, baby-faced, shaven-headed Fritz Haarmann dismembers their bodies after death and sells the flesh to restaurants, dumping the remainder out of sight.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsTommy LewisFreddy ReynoldsAngela Punch McGregorAfter suffering racist abuse throughout his life - which intensifies following his marriage to a white woman - a half-Aboriginal farmhand finds himself driven to murder.
- StarsPaul SkolnickGil CarrilloFrank SalernoThis limited docu-series tells the true story of how one of the most notorious serial killers in American history was hunted down and brought to justice.
- DirectorJohn GillingStarsPeter CushingJune LaverickDonald PleasenceIn 1828 Scotland, Edinburgh surgeon Dr. Knox does medical research on cadavers he buys from murderers Burke and Hare, without questioning the unethical procurement methods.
- DirectorFatih AkinStarsJonas DasslerVasiliki Georgina PseimadaChristine JensenA serial killer strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s.
- CreatorJoe BerlingerStarsStephen MichaudBob KeppelKathleen McChesneyA look inside the mind of serial killer Ted Bundy, featuring interviews with him on death row.
- StarsStratford JohnsFrank WindsorFrank DuncanThe highly popular detective pair from the series Softly, Softly, Barlow and Watt, try to solve the old mystery of Jack The Ripper in this documentary series.
- DirectorMark MarabellaStarsJoel RifkinJulian AttawayRobert MladinichThrough newly revealed interviews from Attica Correctional Facility, New York's most prolific serial killer, Joel Rifkin, reveals exclusive insights into the mind of a monster.
- StarsBob PrinceNan CubaHugh AynesworthHenry Lee Lucas was known as America's most prolific serial killer, admitting to hundreds of murders, but, as DNA results contradict his confessions, will they expose the biggest criminal justice hoax in U.S. history?
- DirectorTim Travers HawkinsStarsCharles CullenAmy LoughrenDonna HargreavesThis documentary reveals how investigators proved ICU nurse Charles Cullen was killing patients — and how close he came to getting away with murder.
- StarsPaul GiamattiPhil AmiconeCharlie OttThe Son of Sam case grew into a lifelong obsession for journalist Maury Terry, who became convinced that the murders were linked to a satanic cult.
- CreatorDennis LehaneStarsTaron EgertonPaul Walter HauserGreg KinnearJimmy Keene is sentenced to 10 years in a minimum security prison but he cuts a deal with the FBI to befriend a suspected serial killer. Keene has to elicit a confession from Larry Hall to find the bodies of as many as eighteen women.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsRichard AttenboroughJudy GeesonJohn HurtWhat happened to the women at 10 Rillington Place? The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.