The 100 Best 'Catch A Killer' Movies
My favourite gritty crime-thriller-mystery films about police / detectives / private investigators (and sometimes normal folks) trying to hunt down a killer / serial killer.
I tried to keep it just about cops and P.I.'s pursuing murderers, but a few other films slipped in that break away from that specific sub-genre.
Also decided not to swamp the list with Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries, as well as the old film-noir "She killed her husband for some reason and now the detective falls in love with her" style movies.
List is in a vague order.
I tried to keep it just about cops and P.I.'s pursuing murderers, but a few other films slipped in that break away from that specific sub-genre.
Also decided not to swamp the list with Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries, as well as the old film-noir "She killed her husband for some reason and now the detective falls in love with her" style movies.
List is in a vague order.
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- 108 titles
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsMorgan FreemanBrad PittKevin SpaceyTwo detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsGuy PearceCarrie-Anne MossJoe PantolianoA former insurance investigator who now suffers from anterograde amnesia uses notes and tattoos to hunt down his wife's murderer.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJake GyllenhaalRobert Downey Jr.Mark RuffaloBetween 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsHugh JackmanJake GyllenhaalViola DavisA desperate father takes the law into his own hands after police fail to find two kidnapped girls.
- DirectorMartin McDonaghStarsFrances McDormandWoody HarrelsonSam RockwellA mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJack NicholsonFaye DunawayJohn HustonA private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
- DirectorKim Jee-woonStarsLee Byung-hunChoi Min-sikJeon Gook-hwanA secret agent exacts revenge on a serial killer through a series of captures and releases.
- DirectorsEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsTommy Lee JonesJavier BardemJosh BrolinViolence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsLeonardo DiCaprioEmily MortimerMark RuffaloTwo US marshals are sent to a mental institution on an inhospitable island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsSean PennTim RobbinsKevin BaconThe tragic murder of a 19-year-old girl reunites three childhood friends still living in Boston--the victim's gangster father, a detective, and the disturbed man they both suspect of killing her.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsAl PacinoRobin WilliamsHilary SwankA Los Angeles detective chases a murder suspect in a remote Alaskan town.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsIsabella RosselliniKyle MacLachlanDennis HopperThe discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
- DirectorsDon SiegelClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodAndrew RobinsonHarry GuardinoWhen a man calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces San Francisco, tough-as-nails Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down the crazed psychopath.
- DirectorJuan José CampanellaStarsRicardo DarínSoledad VillamilPablo RagoA retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later.
- DirectorsJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsWilliam H. MacyFrances McDormandSteve BuscemiMinnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartGrace KellyWendell CoreyA bored photographer recovering from a broken leg passes the time by watching his neighbors and begins to suspect one of them of murder.
- DirectorAndrew DavisStarsHarrison FordTommy Lee JonesSela WardDr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsDaniel CraigRooney MaraChristopher PlummerJournalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years by hacker Lisbeth Salander.NOTE:
Count this with the whole original Swedish trilogy as well:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
The Girl who Played with Fire (2009)
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest (2009) - DirectorTaylor SheridanStarsElizabeth OlsenJeremy RennerGraham GreeneA wildlife officer, who is haunted by a tragedy that happened because of him, teams up with an FBI agent in solving a murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation and hopes to get redemption from his past regrets.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsGene HackmanWillem DafoeFrances McDormandTwo FBI agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of three civil rights activists.
- DirectorGregory HoblitStarsRichard GereLaura LinneyEdward NortonA high-profile murder intrigues a publicity hungry lawyer.
- DirectorBong Joon HoStarsKim Hye-jaWon BinJin GooA mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a girl's horrific murder.
- DirectorDuncan JonesStarsJake GyllenhaalMichelle MonaghanVera FarmigaA soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.
