Thanksgiving (2023)
Slasher Film
Eli Roth’s homage to the slasher film that comes with a dark sense of humour and a series of novelty deaths that rival the best of the 80s slasher heyday
Psychos and Serial Killers
Psychos and Serial Killers is an all-embracing term that refers to anybody of murderously psychopathic disposition in genre cinema. This can range from general murderers and Stalkers to persons of Disturbed Psychology and to those that fall under the modern description of a serial killer.
In textbook psychology terms, a psychopath is merely someone who displays antisocial behaviour and is lacking empathy – so we will specify here that a psycho refers to those with murderous intent and disturbed psychology in a horror context (so as not to include general all-purpose villains too).
The field is so prolific it is hard to say who the first screen psycho would have been. The first time this became a major genre was with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and its memorably gender-contorted, split-personalitied Norman Bates. The Psycho-Thrillers and Giallo Films that followed offered up a range of similarly gender-conflicted characters with strange psychological quirks.
This morphed into the psycho films of the 1970s, which placed less an emphasis on the thriller aspects and more on disturbed individuals and their often sordid states of mind. Plentiful psychos were found lurking in backwoods America to attacks passers-by in the Backwoods Brutality cycle.
The 1980s brought the Slasher Film where the psycho became a hulking Boogeyman or else a member among a group of teens nursing some troubled psychic split. Fatal Attraction (1987) produced a series of stalker films with vengeful women (usually) striking back for past or perceived slights.
The success of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) brought a public fascination with the term ‘serial killer’ and created the Serial Killer Thriller. In these, what was previously lumped together as being just ‘disturbed psychology’ was examined in terms of behavioural patterns that drove an individual to act, all of which could be deduced by minute examination of forensic evidence that gave key clues to their identity.
There is also a sizeable body of films about true-life psychopaths and serial killers. These are discussed under True Crime Films.
Theater of Blood (1973)
Mad Shakespearean Actor's Revenge
Following on from the success of the Dr Phibes films, Vincent Price is cast as a mad Shakespearean actor who employs comically grotesque deaths from Shakespeare’s plays to kill his critics
Theatre of Death (1967)
Grand Guignol Theatre/Vampire Killings
One of the Hammer Films wannabes of the 1960s that even employs Christopher Lee in a horror film set around the historical Grand Guignol Theatre
They’re Inside (2019)
Filmmakers Stalked/Home Invasion
Found Footage film where filmmakers find they are being stalked by other people with cameras. Essentially a Found Footage version of The Strangers
13 Fanboy (2021)
Killer Stalks Friday the 13th Actresses
Slasher film that comes with a great hook – one where various real-life actresses from the Friday the 13th films are stalked by a masked maniac
31 (2016)
Human Hunting Survival Game
Rob Zombie featuring people abducted and forced to play in a deathsport game. This is largely a re-run of House of 1000 Corpses, while both films in turn draw heavily on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. As always, Rob Zombie has a following but also switches large swathes of his audience off
Thr3e (2006)
Christian Serial Killer Thriller
Quite evidently modelled on Se7en even to the lookalike title, this is the novelty of a Christian serial killer thriller. The results are quite strange to say the least
3 from Hell (2019)
Family of Psychos
Rob Zombie is back,, making the third in his trilogy of Firefly films following House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. It is all fairly much the same as before where Zombie’s sympathies are cleanly with the family of psychopaths and their murderous rampage.
Three on a Meathook (1972)
Psycho Film
A great example of the lurid sensationalism with which films of the so-called grindhouse era were sold, designed with a go-for-broke trashiness intended to get you in the door, something that is promptly let down by the shoddiness of the film itself
The Thrill Killers (1964)
Maniacs on the Loose
One of the better films from cult bad movie maker Ray Dennis Steckler dealing with a quartet of mad killers on the loose. The film also came with a promotional gimmick in which the audience is hypnotised
The Tie That Binds (1995)
Adoption Psycho-Thriller
Usually a scriptwriter, Wesley Strick makes a reasonable directorial debut in this psycho-thriller about a white trash couple killing those in their way to getting back the daughter that was taken away from them
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
Time After Time (1979)
Time Travelling H.G. Wells vs Jack the Ripper
A clever and ingenious film from Nicholas Meyer in which H.G. Wells builds his own time machine and pursues Jack the Ripper through time to present-day San Francisco. Lots of witty play around Wells’s cultural bewilderment and some great performances
Tone-Deaf (2019)
Wannabe Serial Killer Black Comedy
Dark, sardonic comedy where Amanda Crew rents a house to get away for a weekend only to face a murderous Robert Patrick. The humour is barbed and quite hilarious
Toolbox Murders (2003)
Apartment Block Slasher
After a decade-long slump, Tobe Hooper started to show he still had what it took with this remake of the 1980 slasher film
Torment (1986)
Psycho Film
Very obscure and forgotten psycho film from the 1980s that, while not aiming particularly high in its horizons, nevertheless manages to generate a reasonable tension and creepiness
Tourist Trap (1979)
Psychokinetic Psycho
An early Charles Band film with Chuck Connors psychically bringing a collection mannequins to life. A fine little film that develops a eerie strangeness all of its own
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
True Life Serial Killer
Interesting little film that has gained a small cult reputation, a True Crime work based on a series of unsolved killings conducted by a masked figure in a small Southern town in 1946. A solid, quasi-documentary-like depiction that adheres to the facts for the most part
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
Modern-Day Copycat of The Phantom Killer
Not a remake but a sequel to the cult true-crime film The Town That Dreaded Sundown with a series of copycat killings influenced by the film occurring in the present-day. Directed with a bravura stylishness that makes you jump out of your seat in joy
Trap (2024)
Serial Killer Trapped at a Rock Concert
M. Night Shyamalan film with Josh Hartnett as a serial killer caught up in a police sting being held at a rock concert
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
Trick (2019)
Halloween Killer
In an era where horror has become safe and mainstream, where content is specifically marketed to PG-audiences, this film about a killer that strikes on Halloween comes with a ferocious gore-drenched enthusiasm
Trick or Treats (1982)
Slasher Film
From the heyday of the slasher film, an effort about a babysitter stalked by an escaped maniac on Halloween Night, which draws great influence from classics of the era such as Halloween and When a Stranger Calls. Nothing standout but what a great supporting cast
Trick ‘R Treat (2008)
Halloween Horror Anthology
Disappointing Bryan Singer produced horror anthology set around Halloween where its potential is frequently dragged down by over-emphatic direction
Turbulence (1997)
Serial Killer on a Plane
Ridiculous disaster movie where air hostess Lauren Holly must deal with serial killer Ray Liotta while trying to land the plane
Tusk (2014)
Man Surgically Transformed Into a Walrus
Really, Kevin Smith?!? A film wherein a mad lunatic transforms another man into a walrus? While you can applaud Smith’s completely out there leap off into Human Centipede territory, you feel unsure whether you should be reacting in shock or laughter at the absurdity of the premise
The 12 Slays of Christmas (2016)
Christmas Horror Anthology
From Troma films, this is an anthology made up of twelve Christmas-themed short horror films for what supposed leading indie directors – so acclaimed I’ve only heard of two of them before
A Twist of Faith (1999)
Catholic Serial Killer Thriller
Dull serial killer thriller with Andrew McCarthy tracking a killer that has a Catholic fixation
Twist of Fate (1998)
Psycho-Thriller
A convoluted courtroom thriller where District Attorney Mädchen Amick is forced to team up with serial killer Chris Mulkey
Twisted (2004)
Serial Killer Thriller
Disappointing Philip Kaufman thriller where detective Ashley Judd finds she is dealing with a serial killer who is obsessed with her
Twisted Nerve (1968)
Psycho Film
A film clearly influenced by Psycho with Hywel Bennett as a disturbed young man with a mother fixation. The film caused some controversy at the time for its wholly unscientific linking of psychopathology and Down’s Syndrome
The Ugly (1997)
Serial Killer
A New Zealand made serial killer thriller that emulates The Silence of the Lambs but becomes distracted by directorial effect
Under Pressure (1997)
Psycho Next-Door Neighbour Snaps
Modestly effective psycho-thriller with Charlie Sheen in his first psycho role as a fireman who snaps under the pressures of everyday life and threatens his neighbour
The Undertaker and His Pals (1966)
Psycho Film
If there ever was a genre actually called grindhouse, this is a prime example. A sordid little film about an undertaker and two diner owners killing spree to drum up business and serve the remains as the special of the day n the diner
Unhinged (2020)
Road Rage Psycho
The first film to go into wide US release during Covid lockdown with Russell Crowe snapping and turning psycho after a road rage incident. Much better than the lukewarm reception it received, this is a quite reasonable variant on Duel
Unholy Night (2019)
Christmas Horror Anthology
Modest and well-made low-budget anthology of Christmas horror tales from three Canadian filmmakers
Unlawful Entry (1992)
Psycho Cop
Psycho-thriller where husband and wife Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe are terrorised by psycho cop Ray Liotta
Unmasked Part 25 (1988)
Slasher Parody/Slasher Maniac in Love
A parody of the slasher film with an amusing central idea – what if a slasher maniac found a love interest and wanted to give up hacking and slashing to be with them?
Untraceable (2008)
Murders Live on the Internet
Gregory Hoblit has proven a fine director but this film about a site showing murders live on the internet feels like an hysterical rant about the dangers of the internet masquerading as a thriller
Urban Legend (1998)
Slasher Film
Following the success of Scream, this was an attempt to make an upmarket slasher film based around the motif of urban legends in the same way that Scream used 1980s slasher films. It is a stretch to make urban legends fit in some cases but director Jamie Blanks delivers reasonable tension
Vacancy (2007)
Remote Motel Torture and Sadism
A reasonable film clearly influenced by Hostel with Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a married couple who sign into a backroads motel used to shoot snuff movies
Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2009)
Remote Motel Torture and Sadism
Passable sequel (or rather prequel) to the remote motel snuff movie thriller Vacancy. Even though a throwaway effort, it manages to build an okay head of steam
The Vagrant (1992)
Yuppie Tormented by a Homeless Man
Directorial outing from makeup effects artist Chris Walas who created the Gremlins and Cronenberg’s The Fly. This Bill Paxton as a Yuppie who buys a home and is driven paranoid as it keeps being invaded by a vagrant
Valentine (2001)
Slasher Film
Following the revival of the slasher film with the success of Scream, this was a slick but forgettable studio copycat set around a Valentine’s Day motif
Vampire (2011)
Serial Killer with a Blood-Drinking Fetish
Technically not a vampire film at all, rather about a kind and caring serial killer with a blood-drinking fetish who frequents suicide support boards looking for victims. A remarkable film, shot in a plain, unaffected manner and managing to discover an extraordinary intimacy between the characters
The Vanishing (1988)
Psycho-Thriller/Unexplained Disappearance
A grippingly good Dutch thriller about a husband who becomes obsessed following the disappearance of his wife, while at the tame time we also get a parallel plot about the comically jolly serial killer responsible
The Vanishing (1993)
Psycho-Thriller/Unexplained Disappearance
Disastrous English-language remake of the brilliant Dutch thriller The Vanishing, which miscalculates everything including mangling the classic ending
Vicious Fun (2020)
Support Group for Serial Killers
Horror comedy set around the wonderfully appealing idea of a support group for serial killers
Victor Crowley (2017)
Slasher Film Homage
Adam Green has enjoyed some success with the Hatchet films; this is the fourth entry in the series … Most of the other films have consisted of not much more than buckets of gore and a host of genre cameos – here though, Green adds a considerable sense of humour to the mix
Villains (2019)
Criminals on the Run Imprisoned by Psychos Comedy
A film with a wonderfully eccentric and offbeat sense of humour where Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe are inept criminals fleeing after a robbery who end up prisoners of a psychopathic couple
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
Violent Shit (1989)
Splatter and Gore/Psycho Film
Boundary-pushing film that consists almost entirely of very enthusiastic splatter and gore scenes. Amateurishly shot on video nevertheless this gained a cult following and produced sequels
Violent Shit: The Movie (2015)
Occult Serial Killer
The original i>Violent Shit films were a series of plotless, gore-drenched German films of the 80-90s. This is a very loose Italian-made remake that is more about the activities of an occult serial killer. Not very well made but there are a lot of homages to classic giallo cinema
Virtuosity (1995)
Android Serial Killer
Director Brett Leonard started the fascination with Virtual Reality off with The Lawnmower Man but shot himself in the foot with this absurd braindead follow-up in which Denzel Washington pursues a madly OTT Russell Crowe as an android serial killer
Visiting Hours (1982)
Slasher Film
Taut and effective effort from the heyday of the slasher film, one of several films on the theme of a woman newscaster being stalked by a psycho. A young Michael Ironside goes to town on the role of the psycho and plays to the gallery with nastily effective results
The Voices (2014)
Inside a Mentally Ill Man's Mind/Black Comedy
On the scale of weird movies, this is about as out there as it gets – Ryan Reynolds has conversations with his cat and dog who urge him to cut people’s heads off, which continue to talk as he keeps them in his refrigerator. A mind-bogglingly warped film and quite brilliant in its dark funniness when you work out what is going on
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
The Watcher (2000)
Serial Killer Thriller
Serial killer thriller that is built around the stunt casting of Keanu Reeves as the killer
Watcher (2022)
Possible Stalker in the Apartment Opposite
Nicely chilling film in which Maika Monroe believes that the person in the apartment opposite might be stalking her
Watchtower (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Modest psycho-thriller about the psychological games between a psychopathic lighthouse keeper (a fine Tom Berenger) and his young assistant
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
What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)
Giallo Film
One of the standout entries in the giallo film and certainly one of the best plotted of the genre, concerning a series of murders at a Catholic girls school
What Keeps You Alive (2018)
Wife Hunted in the Woods
Colin Minihan is an up and rising genre directors well worth keeping an eye. Here he makes a taut and effective survival story where a woman is hunted by her wife who turns psychopathic after a getaway to a cabin in the woods
When a Killer Calls (2006)
The Asylum Mockbuster/Slasher Film
One of The Asylum’s first mockbusters, designed to popularise on the remake of When a Stranger Calls
When a Stranger Calls (1979)
Babysitter Stalker
The original babysitter stalker film based on a short film that was then expanded out to feature-length following the success of Halloween
When a Stranger Calls (2006)
Babysitter Stalked
Passable remake of the 1979 slasher film that streamlines the original and sets it all in amazing designer dream home
When a Stranger Calls Back (1993)
Babysitter Stalker
When a Strange Calls is one of the overlooked entries of the original slasher fad but was quite a hit in its day. This is a forgotten sequel that does some undeniably interesting things with the basics.
When Night Falls (2007)
Maniac on the Loose
New Zealand-made horror film about two nurses being stalked at a remote hopsital
When the Bough Breaks (1994)
Serial Killer Thriller
Strong and absorbing serial killer thriller with Ally Walker tracking a killer who severs children’s hands
Whispers (1990)
Disturbed Twins/Dean R. Koontz Adaptation
Dean R. Koontz adaptation in which Victoria Tennant kills an attacker only for him to be found alive again and return to attack her, involving her in a complex web involving Satanism, vampirism and twins
White of the Eye (1987)
Psycho-Thriller
Dazzlingly stylish psycho-thriller from the underrated Donald Cammell with David Keith as a serial killer in a small Arizona town
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
Who Invited Them (2022)
Sinister Party Guests
A very different type of home invasion film where two mysterious and charming party guests succeed in turning the hosts against each other
Who’s Watching Oliver (2017)
Psycho Film
Low-budget psycho film that bursts with a freshness and originality, not to mention an incredibly perverse kick, featuring an excellent performance from Russell Geoffrey Banks as a mother-dominated killer
Wicked, Wicked (1973)
Split Screen Psycho Film
Very unique psycho film that takes place in split screen with the killer seen on one side of the screen and the victims and pursuing detective on the other
Wild at Heart (1990)
Surreal Disturbed Road Movie
One of David Lynch’s finest films, with lovers Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern on the run in a road movie that travels through deranged places of the mind and explodes with crazy energy
Wilderness (2006)
Human Hunting/Bare Hands Survivalism
Tough brutal British film where a group of youth offenders are hunted while on a wilderness survival course on an island
The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)
Disturbed Woman Cuts Up Men
Cult film with Millie Perkins as a disturbed waitress with a troubled background, this takes place in a fascinating swim of dream and symbolism
With a Friend Like Harry (2000)
Sinister Houseguest
French psycho-thriller where Sergi Lopez gives an unnervingly charming performance as a psychopathic schoolfriend who inserts himself into Laurent Lucas’s life
Without Warning! (1952)
Psycho
Fascinating early psycho film about the police hunt for Adam Williams who kills girls with garden shears
Wolf Creek (2005)
Australian Backwoods Brutality
Making dubious claim to be based on real-life, this courted considerable controversy with its violence. Essentially an Australian Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Greg McLean readily pushes things to extremes
Wolf Creek 2 (2013)
Australian Backwoods Brutality
Greg McLean and John Jarratt return to the Australian Backwood Brutality saga of Wolf Creek for a second outing that is just as effective as the first. McLean often pushes the material into black humour and creates at least one sequence that makes for genuinely uncomfortable watching
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
Possible Werewolf Murders
A film directed by actor Jim Cummings about a small Utah town that is facing a series of werewolf attacks. This works surprisingly well due to a series of witty and well-rounded characterisations
The Woman in the Window (2021)
Psycho-Thriller
Slickly produced psycho-thriller that comes mired in controversy, featuring Amy Adams as an agoraphobe who maybe witnesses a murder.
Woman of the Hour (2023)
True Crime/Serial Killer on a Dating Show
Actress Anna Kendrick directs a film based on a true-life serial killer Rodney Alcala who appeared on tv’s The Dating Game
A Wounded Fawn (2022)
Date with a Serial Killer
This starts with a woman going on a date with a man she does not realise is a serial killer, before things go off at a very strange tangent
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)
Backwoods Brutality
A sequel that has been arranged for the sole purpose of serving up a series of gory dispatch set-pieces every few minutes
Wrong Turn (2003)
Backwoods Brutality
Passable effort that copies that basics of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with a group of stranded teens running afoul of an in-bred family
X (2022)
Psycho Film on a 1970s Porn Film Set
Ti West returns with a fascinatingly charged psycho film that takes place on the shoot of a 1970s porn film
You Can’t Run Forever (2024)
Survival Thriller/Girl Flees an Attacker
The 2020s have seen a surprise upsurge in films about people being pursued by attackers. This is another about a teen girl flees pursued by a J.K. Simmons as a business professor who suddenly goes psycho
You’ll Never Find Me (2023)
Psychological Games Between Two Strangers
Australian film where a girl turns up at the trailer home of a recluse. A series of tense psychological games ensue where it becomes apparent neither of them are being truthful
The Young Poisoner’s Handbook (1995)
True Life Teenage Poisoner
A true-crime film based on real-life British murderer Graham Young, this comes with a black humour tone and a great performance from Hugh O’Conor as Young
The Zodiac (2005)
True Life Serial Killer
Not the David Fincher film but an earlier work based on the Zodiac Killer. Unlike Fincher, this stays to the facts and doesn’t indulge theories about the identity of the killer
Zodiac (2007)
True Life Serial Killer
David Fincher’s gripping investigation into the unsolved true-life Zodiac Killer case. Fincher’s stagings are exacting and the mystery he builds intensely absorbing
The Zodiac Killer (1971)
True-Life Serial Killer
A film based on the Zodiac Killer. Unlike other Zodiac films, this was made while the killer was still active. The film comes with a fascinating backstory where it was made as part of an elaborate trap to lure the Zodiac Killer out