Ranked: The best serial killer movies of all time

The only musical on this list (and one of very few musicals about a serial killer), Sweeney Todd is adapted from the Stephen Sondheim musical of the same name. The film tells the story of a barber who returns to London after 15 years in prison, vowing to get revenge on the judge who sent him there. Featuring an array of insanely great songs, as well as some of Tim Burton’s best work as a director, the musical is dark and hilarious in equal measure. It’s also, like all of Sondheim’s best work, wistful about a world where this kind of evil is not just possible, but understandable.

A movie that in many ways feels like a more demonic riff on The Silence of the Lambs, Longlegs tells the story of Lee Harker, an FBI agent who is tasked with investigating a series of unresolved murders that appear to be connected. As she digs deeper into the case, she discovers that it has more connections to her own life than she might have expected, and also something of a supernatural bent. Featuring some incredibly tense sequences, a captivating central performance from Maika Monroe, and a genuinely riveting case, Longlegs is everything you could want this kind of movie to be.

David Fincher’s first entry into the serial killer genre was Se7en, which follows two detectives as they hunt for a killer who kills people based on whether they’ve committed one of the seven deadly sins. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are a match made in heaven in the two central roles, and each of the grisly murder scenes is fascinating in its own right. Se7en is best remembered today for its gruesome ending, and rightly so, but it’s far from the only thing about Se7en that will send a chill up your spine. This is a story where the bad guys win, and it’s that brutality that has kept the film relevant for decades.

Perhaps the most famous movie about a serial killer, and one of the more famous movies ever made, the twists and surprises in Psycho come early and often. From its iconic shower sequence, which leaves almost all of the actual violence only implied, to the way the pieces are finally unwound so that the killer can be caught, Psycho is terrifying in a way few modern movies can manage. It’s a terrible, twisted thriller that features virtuosic direction and production design, and a commanding central performance from Anthony Perkins. Alfred Hitchcock is one of the great directors in cinema history, and Psycho is up there with his best work.