Top 10 Serial Killer Movies
I came across this list on About.Com that features the Top 10 movies based on true life serial killers. Below is the list, feel free to tell me what you think. Do you agree or disagree? Are there some movies missing that you this deserve to be there?
1) The Deliberate Stranger
Mark Harmon plays compulsive killer Ted Bundy, who was responsible for the deaths of at least 30 women from Washington state to Florida over a period of more than a decade.
2) To Catch a Killer
Brian Dennehy stars as John Wayne Gacy, a homicidal monster who tortured and murdered more than two dozen young victims and buried them in the crawlspace beneath his house.
3) Helter Skelter
Based on Vincent Buliosi’s book, this movie examines the grisly Tate-La Bianca murders carried out by followers of Charles Manson. The movie focuses on the prespective of the investigation and courtroom prosecution of the Manson gang. Steve Railsback portrays Manson.
4) Dahmer
Writer/director David Jacobson’s movie about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed 15 boys and cannibalized their remains, focuses on understanding the deranged mind of Dahmer, rather than his grisly crimes.
5) Ed Gein
Steve Railsback also plays Ed Gein in this movie about a 1950s Wisconsin farmer who was a deeply disturbed serial killer. The Gein case also inspired the movies, Psyco, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.
6) The Boston Strangler
Tony Curtis plays Albert DeSalvo who confessed to a rape and killing spree of 13 women in the early 1960s that terrorized the citizens of Boston. Also stars Henry Fonda.
7) Bonnie and Clyde
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway play Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who robbed small banks in Texas and Oklahoma during the Great Depression days of the 1930s. At the time it was released it was considered one of the most violent films ever produced by mainstream Hollywood.
8 ) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Loosely based on the case of Henry Lee Lucas, a confessed serial killer, is has been described as “a terrifyingly intimate journey into the twisted life of a murderous psychotic.”
9) Summer of Sam
Spike Lee’s portrayal of the Bronx in the summer of 1977 when the Son of Sam (David Berkowitz) terrorized the city by stalking and killing lovers parked in vehicles on the dark streets with a .44 caliber handgun.
10) Speck
Based on the murders of spree killer Richard Speck, this movie details the murder of eight nursing students in a Chicago dormitory on July 13, 1966.
I’m a stickler for the whole serial killer/spree killer thing so I’m gonna complain about About’s list. Charlie and the family were spree killing with the Tate-La Bianca. I don’t think the FBI would class him/them as a serial killer (or serial killing team like Ed and Otis).
It is awfully hard to come up with a list of 10 good ones though because most movies that deal with serial killers end up “Based on a true story” which reads “Based on the drunken dreams of a guy who over heard some other guy talk about a true story. See Psycho/Texas Chain Saw/(any other movie very loosely based on Ed Gein… Did they leave out Monster, maybe it wasn’t accurate enough?
More fun would be a Top 10 Movie list for movies based on serial killers (fictional or near true)…
In no particular order would be…
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
1) Psycho (and Psycho)
2) Texas Chain Saw Massacre (and Texas Chain Saw Massacre)
3) Summer of Sam
4) Manhunter (and Red Dragon)
5) Silence of the Lambs
6) Hannibal
7) Monster
9) From Hell
10) Mary Poppins
that is supposed to be an 8 ) and not a
in front of Henry… If I was meaning to put a smily, it would have been in front of House of a Thousand Corpses (one of my favorite fictional serial killing clans)… >8)
interesting lists… i’m not knowledgeable enough about serial killer movies to make one.
I’m curious how David Fincher’s new Zodiac Killer movie, which is scheduled to open next year, will fare?
I may have to check some of these out. I would like to see ‘to catch a killer’ Gacy has always intrigued me. I’m just morbid like that!
I’m surprised Monster didn’t make the list.
I’m very surprised that American Psycho and Silence of the Lambs didn’t make the list
“Evilenko” should be on the list too…
Monster is based on a killer, but the FBI does not classify Aileen as a serial killer. She did not kill for enjoyment or for lust. She killed for money or reason of rape and violence towards her. I am a profiler for an individual station and there are many many ways and reasons serial killers do what they do. Not known to any of us in the world every person has an intinct or interest in serial killer or just killing in general. That is why we have news coverage around the clock now. We all have what Plato said “The virtuous man is content to dream what the wicked man really does.” Or in other terms we may not all dream of killing but we have a natural instict to think or linger on what another human has alreay done. What we dont know is that every movie weather it is fact or fiction is never ever the real story of the individual it is portraying. The huge events that capsize the real serial killer is always left out of the publics eyes for all intents and purposes not to dipose any human being of information they need not conjure themselves. However, the best movie I have ever seen is Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer due to its intellectual balance into his mind.
Check out Korean movie “Memories of Murder”. Best serialkiller movie based on true story. Word!
Ok, I know just about everything there is to know about Jeffrey Dahmer & the movie “Dahmer” was terrible. It was terribly made & it wouldn’t help anyone understand the mind of Jeffrey Dahmer. I understand Jeff’s mind already, but that movie was awful!
who is silence of the lambs based on?, i saw it one a tv special and cant seem to find anything on the net about it.
How about ‘Badlands’, loosely based on Starkweather/Fugate? And, uh…Mary Poppins?
Dahmer was an abysmal film, it was romanticised sentimental drivel, using elementary pseudo-psychology and fantasy. Speck wasnt that great either. Here is my list. Some of them are old but great :
1) 10 Rillington Place (John Christie played by Richard Attenborough is a cool, clever and manipulative monster)
2) To Catch a Killer ( Brian Dennehy plays J.W Gacy)
3)Ted Bundy (Michael Reilly Burke is Bundy incarnate)
4)The HoneyMoon Killers (1969) (Shirley Stoller and Tony Lo Bianco play Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, serial killers from the 1940’s).
5) M (German Film 1931) (Peter Lorre plays child killer Peter Kurten) Dont be put off by the age of the film and subtitles it is great.
6)Boston Strangler (Tony Curtis)
7)The Bandit Queen (Seema Biswas plays Phoolan Devi , who is not really a serial killer, more an avenger , but is recorded officially as a serial killer).
8)Gacy ( Mark Holton more realstic Gacy than Dennehy, but the LA setting spoils the film, it looks nothing like Chicago).
9)Ed Gein ( Not a serial killer, but a lunatic killer played by Steve Railsback).
10) The Bad Seed (1956) (Patty McCormack plays an 8 year old killer, based on an amalgamation of child killers, but no-one in particular. Apart from Damien in the Omen, you have never wanted a child to die so much as this little monster)
summer of sam didnt really focus a lot on david berkowitz, so wasnt that great. Oh Yes
Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” would be a Joint 10th ,
The film is loosely similar to the “Jack the Stripper” Murders. The killer murdered prostitutes in 1960’s London, he was
name after Jack the Ripper who murdered prostitutes in london in the late 19th Century.
He was never caught, but the killings were attributed to a security guard that drank poison before he could be arrreseted.
A mention should go to GREAT CRIMES AND TRIALS narrated by Robert Powell. I think it was in three seasons throughtthe 1990’s for the history channel. It has real life footage of most of the notorious murderers as well as gangsters, famous trials and unsolved mysteries.
It includes Dahmer, Gacy , Bundy, Henry lee lucus, The Black Panther -Donald Nielson, John Haigh -acid bath murderer, Gary Gilmore, Neville heath, Sam Shephard, Jim Jones, Son of Sam, Al Capone, Bonny and Clyde, Ma Barker, John Dillinger, Graham Young school boy poisoner etc.
The Definite collection for those interested in real life true crime and trials
My list:
1-Citizen X
2-Ed Gein
3-The Boston strangler
4-Ted Bundy
5-The Riverside Hills strangler
6-Henry: Portrait of a serial killer
7-Zee oui (Cannibalism and serial killer)
8-Landru
9-Monster
10-The element of crime
11-Landru
To Catch a Killer was a great movie. It gave an insight into the mind of Gacy who was quite literally a monster.
natural born killers should be in the list i think.
michael myers owns everyone !!!!
you cocksuckers
you stupid mother fucking faggot nigger shit
Citizen X should be on the list
Ohh and not to forget Black Dahlia
Albert Fish is my Father you fucking assholes
JAMES FISH you must be realy fucking old? albert fish 1870-1936
at the beginning of santa sangre, it tells the movie is based on real fact. i think it is bullshit, but the movie is great. see it thru freudish aspects haha
what about night stalker? richard remeriaz(sp) it was pretty twisted. the movie albert fish as well should be in there.silence of the lambs was based on albert fish i red some where to answer that one person’s question about who was it based off of.
there are references stating that Mason; one of the characters in the Silence of the Lambs series is based on Ed Gein… This could well be true… But has Harris ever said anything on the subject of inspiration for characters????
I have to agree with the top two, ‘A Deliberate Stranger’ and ‘To Catch A Killer’ are the best serial killer films and are spot on, the only trouble is I only have ever seen them on TV and do not have a copy of either, I have looked for DVD’s, Movie Torrents but to no avail
can anyone point me in the right direction???
I do agree with the list you provided, however I feel one is missing Albert Fish is his real name, Hannibal Lector you could say was based off of him to a point. If you get a free moment please check out the TruTv Libaray under serial killers. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/fish/index.html
i am reading “inside the minds of serial killers” and also i have become really into books about Gilles de Rais. i am really into Gain and i am looking for really awsome booka can anyone help? i am having a hard time. i love ed gain and really twisted stuff. thanks
oh and i dont like ann rule books. i find then to tame and i love the thrill of a good book
Finchers Zodiac I think is the best because it dives into the events and the people investigating it.
You people need therapy!
I love horror movies and serial killer movies but the Black Widow should have been on this list.
Best I’ve seen would be Henry, as for ones not on here yet
how about William Lustig’s Maniac or Billy Tang’s Dr. Lamb?
Incidentally the character in the Thomas Harris novels inspired by Ed Gein is Jame Gumb AKA Buffalo Bill, the character you guys refered to Mason Verger doesn’t really seem to be based on anyone (except a possibly fictional article in a 1980’s police report book about a man who cut off his face whilst on PCP).
I wouldn’t qualify Bonnie and Clyde (bank robbers), Richard Speck (spree killer, who apparently was remorseful afterwards), Charles Manson (too much disconnection from the actual killings) or the Black Dahlia case (only one victim, though it’s been speculated that due to the brutality of the case the person had a serial killer mindset) as Serial Killers.
There has also been speculation that the Black Dahlia murder wasn’t a stand alone crime. If you are interested in the subject i would check out the book Black Dahlia Avenger by Steve Hodel. It’s a pretty interesting book and has some pretty convincing arguments about the identity of the Black Dahlia murderer and also possible other murders conducted by them.
The Manson murder’s hardly classify as serial killings. Serial, by definition, is 3 or more. If anything, that was a spree killing at best. Summer of Sam is so lame, I hate to term it as such, but I don’t think that movie was well crafted at all. Citizen X on the other hand, nice! There’s another about a serial killer who I want to say is the Granny Killer, but I can’t remember; but the movie made about him was pretty good. Granted, it’s subtitled, but some of the best films about serial murderers are foreign!
idk…..i mean….honestly I’ve never heard or seen any of these……wowzers. now imana have to go and rent them.
do anyone remeber a movie i dont know the name but its ilegal rigth now becouse in the movie tell you how to kill a person step by step and how to do not let any clue , i think there says someting about 10 steps if someone can tell me whats is his name
What about Krissoff Klienarten. The German nutter who raped then choked those young boys to death by forcing weetabix, cornflakes,frosties and all bran into their throats. A REAL CEREAL KILLER.