These are the best true-crime movies of all times

My Friend Dahmer

Even though it is not that well known, the film My Friend Dahmer caused a lot of mixed opinions when it was released at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. It failed in precaution, but it thrives in terms of making a great portrait of a potential serial killer.

My Friend Dahmer narrates the friendship between John Derf, a young artist, and Jeffrey Dahmer, a strange kid who likes to kill animals and stalking.
In this movie, we are going to be aware of the degenerate nature of Dahmer and how his environment moves him to commit such crimes.

The movie takes its time to show us, Dahmer, as a murderer but provides an excellent understanding of how this monster was created.

Summer of Sam

The movie is ambient in New York in the 70s, with reference to the city blackout of the 77 and the Yankees winning season. The city is under the dread of the serial killer known as The Son of Sam, who murdered his victims with a “caliber .44”.

Our main protagonist, Vinny, is a hairdresser who lives in an Italian-American Neighborhood in the Bronx. This movie shows us how the horrifying killing spree causes mass hysteria and how everyone is looking for this “Son of Sam.”

It combines horror, drama, and social commentary, capturing the atmosphere of panic and hysteria during that time.

Elephant

This is a cult movie, praised by critics. It won the Palm d’Or at Cannes in 2003.

It’s a harsh film; it narrates to us the horrifying shooting of the Columbine High School massacre, resulting in 13 deaths, twelve students and one teacher.

The movie is polemical as could be, even though it doesn’t praise the massacre or show it like an energetic gore rampage. The film is truly provocative, but not through cheap sensationalism. It achieves this by encouraging a deep reflection on the social context and emotional aspects surrounding school violence.

It’s the perfect film not only to analyze the psychological factors surrounding the killers but also to debate the social context.

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.

This is not a movie; it is a Netflix series. It is a truly scary one. It was a boom when it was released in 2019 and is still relevant today.

The Ted Bundy Tapes show us not only actual footage and recordings from Bundy himself but also a panoramic view of his crimes, a lot of details, and terrifying scenes where we can try to understand not only the twisted psychology of this murderer but his impact on the American people.

With interviews with people who have talked with Bundy, you will feel like Ted is face-to-face with you.

Zodiac

One of the best actual crime films of all time, Zodiac, features great actors like Ruffalo and Downey Jr., who provide outstanding performances.

Zodiac will have you making theories and analyzing all the little details that the movie throws at the spectator. It’s a thrilling film with unique scenes and sequences that will leave you wanting to know more about the Zodiac.

The Chainsaw Massacre of Texas

One of the greatest classics of all time is The Chainsaw Massacre of Texas. Even though it’s based on the crimes of murderer Ed Gein, it is more fiction than reality. Regardless, the film is a genuinely thrilling rollercoaster, with solid scenes and crazy designs; it’s one of the most iconic indie films of a whole era of the industry.

Investing just $140 000 at the time, the movie made a box office of 30.9 million dollars. It was an absolute hit and an inspiration for more movies to come.

It’s one of the few perfect movies ever made.

-Quentin Tarantino

Horror and exploitation films almost always turn a profit if they’re brought in at the right price. So, they provide a good starting place for ambitious would-be filmmakers who can’t get more conventional projects off the ground. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre belongs in a select company (with Night of the Living Dead and Last House on the Left) of films that are really a lot better than the genre requires.

Not, however, that you’d necessarily enjoy seeing it.

— Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times

This movie is not for the faint of heart. If you are disturbed by this kind of theme, I don’t recommend you watch it.

Psycho

Psycho is considered one of Hitchcock’s best movies and one of the most iconic movies of all time. It tells the story of a secretary who runs away with a significant amount of money from her office.

After long hours on the highway, she needed to stop at the Bates motel, where our main antagonist was.
Norman Bates (who is also based on the murderer Ed Gein) waits for us.

With plot twists and fantastic direction, this movie unleashes the monster of Bates in our minds.
Bates will lurk in every sketchy motel in the middle of the highway.
We will never forget that anything can happen when we are in the unknown.

Silence of the lambs

This film won the Big Five Academy Awards:

Best Picture
Best Director (Demme)

The Best Actor (Hopkins)
Also Best Actress (Foster)
and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally)

Just another two films have done this in movie history.

Buffalo Bill, the film’s antagonist, is inspired by not one but three of the biggest serial killers.

Gary Heidnik kidnapped women and threw them into a pit.
Ted Bundy, who kidnapped women pretending to be injured or in need of help.

And the horrible Ed Gein, who used the skin of his victims to make clothes and furniture.
But the main antagonist, Buffalo Bill, is eclipsed by the scariest Psycho Killer in movie history: Hannibal Lecter.

Complementing the intelligence of serial killers like Edmund Kemper (who had an IQ of 145), the charisma of Bundy, and the calm and cold ways of Dr. Alfredo Ballí Treviño. A horrifying killer who Thomas Harris, the story’s author, has mentioned meeting him.
This film is home to the most repulsive scenarios and intriguing and dense characters—characters with a substantial psychological complexity—everyone, from the killers to the feds. It is just perfect.