20 Movies About Serial Killers That Will Absolutely Creep You Out

Serial killers are scary. Sure, so are ghosts and monsters, but those occupy a distinct, purely fictional part of our minds. Supernatural creatures are ephemeral fears, frightening enough to generate a jolt or a few hours of unease, but nothing really beyond that.

Serial killers are different because they're real. They live in our world, and appear on newscasts and the front pages, not just in books, movies, and old stories. They're flesh and blood, but there's something monstrous about them that makes them difficult to understand, and almost impossible to empathize with. They're diverse, too. In the movies, some serial killers are cheesy slashers. Others are complex, nuanced individuals with a monstrous streak. The most terrifying, however, are the ones who seem just like us — at least at first. 

Here, I highlight 20 movies about serial killers that will absolutely creep you out. Among them are international offerings, lesser-known gems, and bone-chilling plunges into the darkest recesses of the human mind. Brace yourselves.

Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt," one of his earliest films, is a measured, slow-burn steeped in paranoia and small town, suburban ennui. It's also one of his lesser-known masterpieces, with The Library of Congress deeming it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" (per the Library of Congress). For the unconvinced, just ask Hitchcock himself — it's his favorite among an extensive filmography.

Teresa Wright stars in "Shadow of Doubt" as Charlotte "Charlie" Newton, a precocious teenage girl with an unmatched affinity for her Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton). Soon, however, young Charlie begins to suspect that the older Charlie might just be the "Merry Widow Murderer," a serial killer who targets rich widows. Young Charlie's suspicions are soon confirmed, though no one believes her. The more she shows her cards, the more in danger her life becomes. 

"Shadow of a Doubt" is incredibly well-acted, genuinely tense, and features one of Hitchcock's most astute balancing acts, leveraging between grim gallows humor against bona fide terror. It deserves to sit alongside "Psycho" as one of Hitchcock's greatest contributions to both cinema and the serial killer subgenre.

Brian De Palma almost certainly channeled preeminent Giallo director Dario Argento with "Dressed to Kill." "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" is Argento's directorial debut, and remains one of his most accomplished slasher-mystery hybrids. Tony Musante stars as Sam Dalmas, an American writer vacationing in Rome who witnesses a brutal attack on a woman in an art gallery. The initial outburst of violence is splendidly staged in a way only Argento could pull off, with the camera flash-cutting to the attack and then back to Sam, alone on the street and powerless to help.

The woman is Monica Ranier (Eva Renzi), the gallery owner, and though she survives the attack, several others soon turn up dead. Sam, having witnessed it, fears he may be next, and both he and his girlfriend, Julia (Suzy Kendall), endeavor to discover who the killer is before the murderer catches up to them. "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" is stylish, brilliantly violent, and boasts a genuinely engaging central mystery. The over-the-top histrionics are somewhat heightened in translation, especially in the dubbed versions available to stream or rent, but "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" is nonetheless one of Argento's best offerings, as well as being a truly groundbreaking and transgressive slice of serial killer cinema.

"The Call" is one of the newest offerings on this list, having debuted on Netflix in winter 2020, but it is also one of its best. An intoxicating and almost fiendishly fresh take on old tricks, "The Call" stars Park Shin-hye as Kim Seo-yeon, a woman who returns to her mother's country home and discovers that the landline has connected her with Oh Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), a young woman living in the same house 20 years before.

A hybrid of a time travel adventure and a slasher movie, "The Call" is unlike anything else released this century. Science is largely sidelined, present enough to establish the central conceit but never focused on the point of distraction. Though Kim Seo-yeon and Oh Young-sook at first develop a friendly rapport, with both using their knowledge of past and present to help the other, only Oh Young-sook's actions in the past have the capacity to reverberate in the present. I won't spoil anything else here — a great deal of the many pleasures of "The Call" come from its subversive script and gut-wrenching twists — but for fans of both time travel and serial killers (what a combination!) "The Call" is worth answering.

Alexandre Aja, in the early part of his career, was somewhat pejoratively known to be a member of "the splat pack," a group of independent filmmakers, including Greg McLean or James Wan, who directed, wrote, or produced horror movies notable for both low-budgets and graphic violence. "High Tension," one of Aja's earliest movies, was enough to earn him entry to the pack. Filmed in 2003, though not released in the United States until 2005 on account of lengthy edits to avoid an NC-17 rating, "High Tension" is a terrifying, bloody, and not-at-all-for-the-faint-of-heart depiction of one of cinema's most brutal serial killers.

Cécile de France stars as Marie, a young woman staying with her friend Alexia's family in the French countryside. That night, a killer driving a milk truck arrives, murders the entire family — including, it must be noted, a young child in a graphic on-screen death — and kidnaps Alexia. Marie must simultaneously outwit the killer and do what she can to save her friend. A brutal, violent cat-and-mouse game ensues, played out along foggy roads and dimly lit rest stops. Though notable for some on account of its ludicrous final twist, "High Tension" largely works as a terrifying example of what the new century of horror had to offer.

"Super Dark Times," Kevin Philips' directorial debut, is super depressing. The verisimilitude is astounding, with Owen Campbell and Charlie Tahan turning in some of the most authentic, mid-'90s geek performances ever committed to screen. Campbell stars as Zach Taylor and Tahan as Josh Templeton, two best friends whose lives are upended when Josh, while screwing around, accidentally kills their mutual friend Daryl (Max Talisman).

The suburban ennui is suffocating, punctuated with a grunge aesthetic, droning soundtrack, and hallucinatory vignettes of violence and paranoia that are almost viscerally uncomfortable to sit through. Spoilers will be kept to a minimum, but as Zach endeavors to keep this secret, it becomes clear that what Josh did may not have been an accident. Rob Hunter of /Film highlighted "Super Dark Times" as one of 2017's best, saying "it builds to an incredibly tense third act that intertwines angst, doubt, and suspense into some of the year's most thrilling beats." "Super Dark Times" is not only super dark — it's super good.

Ben Wheatley's "Kill List," much like Kevin Philips' "Super Dark Times," makes for an exceptionally uncomfortable viewing experience. Neil Maskell stars as Jay, a British soldier who, upon his return from Kyiv, reunites with his old friend, Gal (Michael Smiley). The two work as contract killers, and accept a contract from an ominous new employer who orders three kills. Divided into three distinct parts, each vignette covering a separate murder, "Kill List" effortlessly shifts between urban drama, revenge thriller, and folk horror, with some of the most shocking, visceral cinematic violence of the past decade..

Wheatley has since shifted into more mainstream fare, including Netflix's "Rebecca" remake and, most recently, "The Meg 2." However, "Kill List" remains his superlative feature. Confounding, frightening, and home to some of the most spine-tingling imagery ever, "Kill List" is almost a genre unto itself. It's a radical and wholly unique reinvention of the serial killer movie, one in which the killers are paid, the victims unknown, and the tension suffocating.

Shawn Linden's "Hunter Hunter" was one of 2020's most pleasant surprises. Infamous online for its (truly, madly) shocking ending, "Hunter Hunter" is an authentic and gritty account of a family living off the grid who stumble upon both a dangerous woodland wolf and a pile of bodies not far from their remote homestead.

Linden never sensationalizes or romanticizes rural life, with Camille Sullivan's Anne Mersault, wife of star Devon Sawa's Joseph, operating as an audience surrogate, repeatedly bemoaning their meager lives and wondering whether it's time for them to move onto something more normal and stable. Mersault in particular turns in a stellar performance. "Hunter Hunter" is a grab-bag of genres, mixing together wolves, guns, serial killers, dismembered corpses, and even Nick Stahl, and somehow ends up more than the sum of its parts. Chilling, well-shot, and profoundly intense, "Hunter Hunter" is worth hunting down.

"Nightwatch" ("Nattevagten" in Danish) is a gothic thriller from writer-director Ole Bornedal. Nikolaj Coster Waldau of "Game of Thrones" fame stars as Martin Bork, a law student who takes a gig as a night watchman at a local medical institute, eager to have some alone time to study. Simultaneously, a serial killer targets women in Copenhagen and Martin, spooked by the dark, begins to suspect that the bodies he's watching are truly dead.

Remade three years later with Ewan McGregor (though, it must be noted, that version is much, much worse), "Nightwatch" is a tough to categorize but thoroughly frightening horror film. With a smattering of serial killer intrigue, a gleeful exploitation of man's innate fear of the dark, and some supernatural goings-on, it's a hybrid film that exceeds expectations. Part murder mystery, part violent slasher, Bornedal's "Nightwatch" is tough to track down, but if you can snag a copy, it's a filmic experience unlike any other.

The bag. That damned bag. Takasi Miike's "Audition" takes the slow burn to an entirely new level. Almost completely devoid of violence until the end, it nonetheless remains a deeply disturbing tale of man meets woman. Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is helping with a casting call when he meets Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), an enigmatic young woman who reads for the role. Aoyama is quickly obsessed and tracks Asami down to an apartment that contains just an empty sack and a phone. Red flags are ignored as Aoyama's obsession consumes him. Asami's references are either missing or aloof, and before they sleep together for the first time, Asami demands that Aoyama pledge his love to her and no one else.

Creepily cryptic, partially confounding, and thoroughly disturbing, "Audition" builds to one of the most famous horror climaxes in history. The imagery is nauseating and the performances unsettling — no one in the movie acts quite human enough — but "Audition" is a fascinating reflection on love, obsession, death, and, yes, murder.

There are a lot of people involved behind the camera in "Summer of 84." While three directors might suggest a movie full of competing ideas and conflicting tones, François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell smartly combine their talents in what remains one of the best "Stranger Things" riffs released in recent years.

Thirteen teenage boys have disappeared in Cape May, Oregon, and while the summer of 1984 means bike rides, "Star Wars" jokes, and ogling local hotties, it soon shifts to terror when a quartet of teenage boys begins to suspect that neighbor and police officer Wayne Mackey (Rich Sommer) is the infamous Cape May Slayer. Unrated, "Summer of 84" is a "Stranger Things" redux in its early hour, though it takes a considerably darker (and more violent) turn as the narrative unravels. It's shocking, discordant stuff, but it works as a poignant reminder of how evil, cruelty, and paranoia can permanently disrupt childhood.