After Alice (1999)
Clairvoyant/Serial Killer Thriller
Kiefer Sutherland is a detective investigating a serial killer who finds he is having clairvoyant dreams. A fairly routine thriller on all counts.
Police Procedurals and Detective Stories
Police Procedurals and Detective Stories are a genre unto themselves. They feature investigating detectives (be they members of a police force, private investigators, government agents such as FBI or sometimes amateurs who become involved in a mystery). They can range from the adventures of Sherlock Holmes to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie to the Film Noir P.I.s of Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane to the forensic investigators of the various modern CSI shows. These are a strong and flourishing genre on their own.
Such stories usually feature a detective of some type at the centre. The story will follow the course of the investigation as various clues are deduced, suspects are encountered, red herrings and false leads are produced, before the denouement of the story reveals the guilty party and lets us into the detective’s process of deductive reasoning. All detective stores follow this structure with very few exceptions.
These films are mundanely rooted and rarely intersect with fantastic material. There are some occasions when they do, usually when the nemesis being pursued by the detective turns out to be a Psycho or Serial Killer. It should be noted that these films are primarily focused on the process of investigation and trail of clues. Films that focus on the killer and detail their trail of murders are psycho films.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) is a police procedural and introduced the Serial Killer Thriller where the focus shifts to tracking killers with the use of forensics and analysis of their behavioural patterns.
Alex Cross (2012)
Serial Killer Thriller
Reboot of James Patterson’s criminal profiler books makes the mistake of hiring an action director. Tyler Perry lacks the genius mental agility Morgan Freeman previously brought to the role but Matthew Fox does crazy well
Amsterdamned (1988)
Serial Killer Prowls the Canals of Amsterdam
Fine thriller about the hunt for a frogman serial killer prowling the canals of Amsterdam. The police procedural plot is not so important as the entertaining dispatches and some of the finest action sequence of the 1980s
Amsterdamned II (2025)
Serial Killer Prowls the Canals of Amsterdam
Amsterdamned with a detective pursuing a frogman serial killer prowling the canals of Amsterdam was a hugely underrated action film. 37 years later the director and lead actor reteam for a sequel
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006)
Prison Murder Mystery with Surreal SF Elements
This is one of Takashi Miike’s most incomprehensible films – what appears to be a murder mystery and gay love story set in a prison, along with random SF elements
Blood Work (2002)
Aging Detective Pursues Serial Killer
This could be essentially be called Dirty Harry’s retirement. Clint Eastwood directs/stars as an aging detective brought back into the game to track down a serial killer from his past.
The Bone Collector (1999)
Serial Killer Thriller
Serial killer thriller with Denzel Washington as Jeffrey Deaver’s quadriplegic profiler Lincoln Rhyme and Anjelina Jolie as a rookie cop who becomes his aide
Child 44 (2015)
Serial Killer Thriller Set in the 1950s Soviet Union
This offers one of the most fascinating settings for a detective story – the Soviet Union at the height of Stalinist oppression – and borrows the story of true-life Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo
The City & The City (2018)
Two Cities That Inhabit the Same Geographic Space
The first of China Mieville’s works to be adapted to the screen, a detective story set in two cities that exist in the same geographic space but where each act as their own country. This misses as much as it succeeds
Cold Blood: The Last Hurrah (2007)
Serial Killer Thriller
The fifth and final of the Cold Blood films, brings Matthew Kelly’s serial killer back but still lacks the gripping tension of the first two films
The College-Girl Murders (1967)
Girls' School Killings
One among the series of German krimi films adapted from Edgar Wallace about a series of murders at a girls college. Shot with wonderfully lurid and colourful schemes
Cop (1988)
Disturbed Cop Hunts Serial Killer
A James Ellroy-adapted crime thriller with James Woods giving a very disturbed performance as an unhinged detective on the trail of a serial killer
Cruising (1980)
Serial Killer/Gay Subculture
Controversial William Friedkin film in which Al Pacino plays a straight cop who must go undercover in New York’s gay leather and S&M community to hunt a serial killer. This holds back little in its portrayal of the scene.
Darkgame (2024)
Snuff Internet Site
A film about a snuff site that broadcasts a torture gameshow live on the web. This is a thriller that feels as though made by people who know nothing about the internet or law enforcement procedure
Dead Eyes of London (1961)
German Krimi Thriller
One of the German krimi films of the 1960s, regular police procedurals piled with so many weird elements they become works of the bizarre. Adapted from an Edgar Wallace novel about murders managed from an institute for the blind
Des (2020)
True-Life Serial Killer
Excellent British tv mini-series that tells the story of true-life serial killer Dennis Nilsen who preyed on gay men in London in the 1980s. David Tennant gives an electrifying performance in the title role
Dirty Harry (1971)
Tough Individualistic Cop vs a Psycho
The film that made Clint Eastwood’s name. He is a rule-bending cop who decides he has to defy the system in his pursuit of a psycho (a thinly disguised version of the then active Zodiac Killer)
Doctor Plague (2026)
Ritual Killings
A British thriller where detective Martin Kemp has to deal with a series of murders conducted by someone in a plague doctor mask, which supposedly replicate the Jack the Ripper killings
Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972)
Child Killings
One of the early films from Lucio Fulci – the film that he always insisted was his best – concerning a series of child killings in a small town. Quite different to the sort of film Fulci became known for
The Factory (2012)
Serial Killer Thriller
A Dark Horse Entertainment film that traipses through a tired serial killer plot that comes out resembling a weak episode of CSI before a frankly unbelievable twist ending
Fear City (1984)
Serial Killer Targets Strippers
Abel Ferrara is known for bleak works of social realism. This features a killer targeting strippers but has a superficial blandness that feels like it is made by someone who has never visited a strip joint in their life
Final Combination (1994)
Serial Killer Thriller
Thriller with Michael Madsen as a detective searching boxing clubs for a serial killer. This has one of the most inanely ridiculous scripts one has seen in some time
The First Deadly Sin (1980)
Cop vs Serial Killer
Dreary police procedural with middle-aged detective Frank Sinatra hunting a serial killer. Mostly, the film seems to be about getting old and the thriller aspect is developed with almost minimal interest
The Frozen Ground (2013)
True-Life Serial Killer
A film based on true-life serial killer Robert Hansen who would fly girls out into the Alaskan wilderness and then hunt them. Nicolas Cage is the dogged detective up against John Cusack as the killer
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
Swedish Serial Killer Thriller
Strong and dramatically absorbing Swedish thriller featuring one of the most original and provocative heroines on screen in some time. A word of mouth hit that later underwent a lesser English-language remake
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Serial Killer Thriller
David Fincher’s English-language remake of the Swedish film is capably made but a lesser shadow of something that worked perfectly the first time. In particular, Rooney Mara is no substitute for Noomi Rapace
The Gorilla of Soho (1968)
German Krimi Thriller
One of the bizarrely colourful German krimi thrillers of the 1960s based on the works of Edgar Wallace involving a series of killings conducted by someone dressed in a gorilla suit
Hangman (2017)
Serial Killer Thriller
A dreary revival of the 1990s serial killer thriller. The surprise for a work that has no ambition beyond cable filler is that it has attracted a name like Al Pacino who mugs and showboats through the worst performance of his career
Hero and the Terror (1988)
Cop vs Psycho
One of Chuck Norris’s action films made for Cannon Films during his 1980s heyday. This is a rather forgettable police procedural where Chuck is cast as a detective hunting an escaped serial killer
Instinct (2007)
Psycho-Thriller
British psycho-thriller that is a little too laidback to work but does eventually put some effective twists on its audience
The Invisible Guardian (2017)
Spanish Serial Killer Thriller
The first in a trilogy of Spanish detective thrillers adapted from Dolores Redondo concerning ritual child killings, a serial killer and a local Bigfoot type creature lurking in the background
The January Man (1989)
Serial Killer Thriller
A completely ridiculous thriller with Kevin Kline playing a fireman-detective who is tracking a serial killer. It is hard to tell if it was intended as a comedy but it managed to attract an impressive cast list
Jennifer Eight (1992)
Serial Killer
A psycho-thriller in which Andy Garcia plays a detective who is trying to protect/romance blind Uma Thurman from a serial killer who targets blind women
Jill the Ripper (2000)
Female Serial Killer/Sadomasochism
A quite good thriller where Dolph Lundgren plays a detective who is drawn into a underworld of sadomasochistic sex during the hunt for a female serial killer
Kamikaze 1989 (1982)
Near Future Detective Thriller
A detective thriller set in a near-future Germany. Arthouse director Rainer Werner Fassbinder plays the detective. This came out three weeks before Blade Runner prefigures what was later called Cyberpunk
Kiss the Girls (1997)
Serial Killer Thriller
The first film adapted from James Patterson’s books about forensic profiler Alex Cross, featuring standout performances from Morgan Freeman (cast as Cross) and Ashley Judd
The Laughing Policeman (1973)
Detective Thriller/Serial Killer
A gritty US-made adaptation of a Swedish thriller with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern as detectives investigating a machine-gun murder spree aboard a bus
The Legacy of the Bones (2019)
Spanish Detective Thriller/Ritual Killings
The second of the films based on Dolores Redondo’s police procedurals, this heads into an admirably dark and perverse place with plenty of jolt twists
The Limehouse Golem (2016)
Victorian Serial Killer
This comes with a captivating tagline “Before The Ripper, fear had another name” and misleadingly suggests it is based on another true-life Victorian serial killer. This refuses to be the police procedural you expect
The Lodger (2009)
Modern-Day Jack the Ripper Killings
Fourth version of the tale about a family who believe their boarder might be Jack the Ripper. This is updated to the present and abandons most of the story for a mind-bending pretzel of identity speculations
The Long Shadow (2023)
True-Life Serial Killer
An exhaustive and very accurately detailed tv mini-series based around the Yorkshire Ripper, a serial killer who targeted prostitutes in the north of England between 1975 and 1981
M (1931)
Criminal Underworld Hunts Child Murderer
Fritz Lang was an extraordinary director of the silent era and this was his first sound film. Peter Lorre gives an amazingly craven performance as a child murderer who becomes hunted by the criminal underworld
Manhunter (1986)
Hannibal Lecter Film
The very first Hannibal Lecter film. Under Michael Mann, this comes with a stylistic flourish very different to what the films became when Anthony Hopkins took the role
Marshland (2014)
Spanish Police Procedural/Serial Killer
A strong and tightly wound police procedural, not unreminiscent of the first season of True Detective. What makes the plot stand out is the beautifully desolate setting of the remote Spanish marshlands
Memories of Murder (2003)
True Life Korean Serial Killer Thriller
Early film from Bong Joon-ho, a true crime work about the investigation into a rural Korean serial killer
Murder By Numbers (2002)
Forensic Psychology Thriller
Thriller with Sandra Bullock as a burned-out detective investigating two teenagers who have decided to commit a murder as an experiment in amorality
Night Game (1989)
Cop vs Serial Killer
Police procedural with Roy Scheider as a detective tracking a serial killer who strikes on the nights of big baseball games
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Edgar Allan Poe in an Occult Murder Mystery
Superlatively moody and well written film that winds a young Edgar Allan Poe into an occult murder mystery
The Pledge (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Slow and subtle Sean Penn directed thriller where Jack Nicholson plays a retired detective haunted by a child murder case
Prettykill (1987)
Cop vs Serial Killer
A shabby Canadian police procedural with David Birney as a detective hunting a killer who is targeting prostitutes
The Pyx (1973)
Murder Investigation/Devil Worship Cult
Difficult to find 1970s Canadian-made occult film that doesn’t quite live up to expectation. Mostly it is a police procedural and the devil worship cult angle only emerges as a left field ending in the last ten minutes.; Not tight enough as a detective story to fully work
Red Dragon (2002)
Hannibal Lecter Prequel
Following the success of the Hannibal Lecter films, Dino de Laurentiis smartly repackaged Thomas Harris’s earlier novel as a Hannibal Lecter prequel
Red Riding (2009)
Hunt for a Serial Killer
Depending on how you saw this, this is either a UK tv mini-series or three separately released films. Taking place over a decade, the three stories have a common locale and overlapping characters in the story of the hunt for a serial killer and the battle against a corrupt police department in Yorkshire
Relentless (1989)
Cop Tracks Serial Killer
A popular thriller in its day about a cop tracking a serial killer (played by Brat Packer Judd Nelson). This prefigures The Silence of the Lambs in some interesting ways. Several sequels followed
The Return of Dr Mabuse (1961)
Criminal Mastermind
The first of five West German-made sequels featuring Fritz Lang’s great criminal mastermind Dr Mabuse, who this time is masterminding a plot to create mind controlled zombies
The Ritual Killer (2023)
Ritual Killings
A film that stands much in the shadow of Se7en and the serial killer thriller with Morgan Freeman tracking a ritual African killer
The Rosary Murders (1987)
Catholic Serial Killings
Extremely good thriller from an Elmore Leonard script with Donald Sutherland as a Catholic priest who tries to stop a serial killer without violating the sanctity of the confessional
Sacrifice (2000)
Escaped Con Hunts Serial Killer
Michael Madsen is a bank robber who makes an escape from jail and goes on the run to track down the serial killer who killed his daughter
Sacrifice (2016)
Ritual Murders/Secret Society
This comes with much promise – rune-covered bodies found on a remote island, ritual murders and a secret society that believe they are the descendants of Celtic supermen – that you wonder what caused the filmmakers to let it slip through their hands
Saigon (1988)
Vietnam War Psycho-Thriller
Vietnam War film where the setting makes a unique and surprisingly effective backdrop for a modern film noir psycho-thriller
Sea of Love (1989)
Psycho-Thriller/Romance
Standout thriller with great scripting and performances where detective Al Pacino goes undercover in the dating scene to track a killer and comes up against a sultry Ellen Barkin
Shadow Hunter (1993)
Detective Tracks American Indian Sorcerer
Directed by the underrated J.S. Cardone, this features Scott Glenn in a fine performance trying to track Indian sorcerer Benjamin Bratt
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Serial Killer Thriller
This caught on in a big way with the public, created a fascination with serial killers and forensic psychology and was nominated for a host of awards. Personally, one finds it one of the more overrated films of modern vintage
The Silencing (2020)
Hunt for a Serial Killer
Thriller where Nikolaj Coster Waldau is the alcoholic manager of a game preserve who becomes drawn in to the search for a serial killer who hunts girls
The Slasher … Is the Sex Maniac! (1972)
Giallo Film
A giallo film about a killer who is murdering adulterous women. Standard material but some of the film’s dated sexual attitudes cause quite a double take today
The Snowman (2017)
Norwegian Serial Killer Thriller
International production based on a series of books about a Norwegian detective. This flopped badly and was called confusing. Mostly, it is a serial killer thriller that fails to hold you gripped with its unfoldings
The Soul Eater (2024)
Police Procedural/Folk Boogeyman Killings
A French police procedural where detectives are plunged into a series of bizarre murders involving a child sacrifice cult and a folk boogeyman. From the directorial duo who started the whole French Extremism movement with Inside
SS-GB (2017)
Alternate History/England Under Nazi Rule
The alternate history has never fared well on film but this British mini-series is an excellent variant on the Nazis Win World War II scenario. As opposed to the similar but tedious The Man in the High Castle series, this is marvellously understated and written with superb tension
Stone Cold Dead (1979)
Detective Thriller/Serial Killer
A dull Canadian-made police procedural with detective Richard Crenna on the trail of a sniper that is killing prostitutes
Striking Distance (1993)
Action/Psycho-Thriller
Action thriller with Bruce Willis as a river patrol detective hunting a serial killer
Stripped to Kill (1987)
Undercover in a Strip Club Psycho-Thriller
The very first film with the plot of a woman cop going undercover in a strip club. The police procedural plot and psycho element takes a very clear backseat to the stripper set-pieces, some of which are imaginatively staged. On the plus side, the film is directed by a woman
Switchback (1997)
Psycho-Thriller
Directorial debut from the Die Hard scriptwriter Jeb Stuart is a solid thriller but the film was a surprise flop despite bringing together an impressive cast
Tainted Love (1995)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
Tawdry copy of Basic Instinct, an erotic thriller about a woman detective going undercover to investigate a series of murders that are linked to a health club
10 to Midnight (1983)
Cop Pursues Serial Killer
Typical of the hard-boiled thrillers/action films Charles Bronson made during the 1980s for Cannon Films. This borrows the basics from Dirty Harry with Bronson as a cop required to bend the rules to stop a psycho
The Testament of Dr Mabuse (1962)
Mind-Controlling Criminal Mastermind
Third of the German thrillers of the 1960s featuring the criminal mastermind Dr Mabuse, a remake of the 1933 film where Mabuse continues his criminal schemes via mind control despite being confined to an asylum
Tightrope (1984)
S&M/Serial Killer Thriller
One of the darkest films Clint Eastwood ever made where he is a detective who becomes tempted by the world of BDSM during his pursuit of a serial killer
The Treatment (2014)
Detective Hunts Paedophile Killer
The police procedural has vanished from cinema screens this side of the 00s, although this is one Belgian example. This ventures into some very dark territory in its story of a detective who ventures into underground paedophile rings in search of a child-abducting serial killer
Tunnel Vision (1994)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
A poorly made Australian copy of Basic Instinct where a detective and his partner are investigated a serial killer. All the heated sexuality comes out tamely
Twin Peaks (1990)
Smalltown Weirdness/Murder Mystery
David Lynch’s dive into the dark underbelly of smalltown weirdness became the cult tv series of the 1990s. This is the slightly re-edited pilot issued for theatrical release internationally, which offers an ungainly wrap-up to the proceedings
A Twist of Faith (1999)
Catholic Serial Killer Thriller
Dull serial killer thriller with Andrew McCarthy tracking a killer that has a Catholic fixation
Violent Blood Bath (1974)
Trail of Killings
A Spanish thriller about the investigation into mysterious payment made to an executed killer, which is then followed by a series of copycat killings that mimic those conducted by the dead killer
WΔZ (2007)
Serial Killer Thriller
Serial killer thriller that eventually emerges as I Spit on Your Grave reimagined as a police procedural. Much effort is made to portray a grim urban environment but little to engage as a thriller, although Selma Blair owns the show as the avenged woman in the latter third
We Hunt Together (2020)
Lovers on a Killing Spree
BBC mini-series about two lovers on a killing spree that works through some great performance and engaging character arcs
Whitechapel (2009)
Modern-Day Jack the Ripper Killings
Fascinating British mini-series about a series of modern-day Jack the Ripper copycat killings, one where the writers have clearly done their research
Without Warning! (1952)
Psycho
Fascinating early psycho film about the police hunt for Adam Williams who kills girls with garden shears