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Movies and mini-series based on real-life serial killers are tricky. They usually focus on the killers themselves and their deeds but often ignore the victims and their families. What seems like a cash grab on other people’s trauma can feel irresponsible. To some degree, that might be true. However, the good ones, like the ones below (with the exception of “Wolf Creek”), are well-rounded tales of the real people who helped bring these killers to justice so that the victims’ families could have a little peace.
These killers are smart and cunning and often manipulate their investigators with mental games. Luckily, more often than not, the authorities can match wits with them, which eventually leads to a conviction. The films and mini-series below are testaments to that.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)
As dramatic as it is horrifying, this Netflix mini-series isn’t a gore fest, rather it’s a look into the mind of Dahmer himself. There are plenty of unsettling scenes that hint at what’s to come of his victims but what’s really unnerving is how Dahmer (Evan Peters) manipulated those victims into his apartment where they were incapacitated with a variety of chemicals and physical mutilations.
Monster (2003) VOD
Charlize Theron plays the crazed Aileen Carol Wuornos in this Oscar winner. Not many female serial killers have been documented on film and if there were, this one would still be the cream of the crop. Wuornos, a self-proclaimed prostitute shot and killed several of her male clients claiming all of them raped her. Theron’s portrayal is a sympathetic one but at the same time doesn’t treat Wournos as a hero.
The Boston Strangler (1968) VOD
The cast list for this film reads like a roster for Hollywood’s golden age: Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy, and Sally Kellerman. Although some of the facts depicted in the movie have come into question, this still holds up.
Citizen X (1995) Max
We recently lost the great actor Donald Sutherland who starred in this HBO movie about Andrei Chilarilo, a Soviet serial killer who killed 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990.
Zodiac (2007) VOD
A California killer who terrorized an entire state between 1968 and 1969, is explored in this thriller, although the details of the case captured the world’s attention.
Playing more like a police procedural than a horror movie, Zodiac still manages to create an unsettling atmosphere with its drawn-out mystery of a serial killer who manages to kill five people and wound two more while taunting the police as to his identity.
Appropriate Adult (2011) Tubi
The title comes from a court arrangement where an adult sits with a defendant who has a learning disability during an investigation to ensure he or she understands what’s being asked. In this case, the “appropriate” is Janet Leach (Emily Watson) who is aiding serial killer Fred West (Dominic West) during his court proceedings. She is unprepared for the frankness of his confessions.
Leach is allowed to leave her position because of West’s gruesome detailed accounts. But she stays on and more about the killer and his victims is revealed. This won many BAFTA Awards and garnered critical acclaim.
Badlands (1973) VOD
Like Wolf Creek, Badlands draws its inspiration from the real-life case. This one is of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, who in 1958 went on a killing spree in Nebraska and Wyoming leaving 11 people dead. A-list actors at the time, Sissy Spacek and Charlie Sheen, portray the killers in this highly-rated film.
Polytechnique (2009) Tubi
The topic of this film is already uncomfortable as it deals with a mass school shooting. It happened in Montreal in 1989 at the Polytechnique School of engineering. Marc Lepine, armed with a semi-automatic rifle targeted only women at the school, killing 14.
Wolf Creek (2005)
In the 1990s several backpackers were brutally killed by serial killer Ivan Milat in the Australian Outback. Director Greg McLean took inspiration from that story for Wolf Creek. It is a relentless and disturbing slasher that takes liberties with the actual case, but thinking that these murders took place in any capacity is indeed horrifying.
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