The Best Serial Killer Movies and TV Shows on Kanopy

What it's about: The true story of the investigation of the "Zodiac Killer", a serial killer who terrified the San Francisco Bay Area, taunting police with his ciphers and letters. The case becomes an obsession for three men as their lives and careers are built and destroyed by the endless trail of clues.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle & PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, CBS All Access & 1 other) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video & 5 others).

What it's about: Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a male journalist and a young female hacker. In the opening of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged publisher for the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Nevertheless, he is hired by Henrik Vanger in order to solve a cold case, the disappearance of Vanger's niece

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a subscription service (Fandor, Sundance Now & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: After a 13-year imprisonment for the kidnap and murder of a 6 year old boy, beautiful Lee Guem-ja starts seeking revenge on the man that was really responsible for the boy's death. With the help of fellow inmates and reunited with her daughter, she gets closer and closer to her goal. But will her actions lead to the relief she seeks?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi TV) & stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy).

What it's about: Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) is on the run from the police. Director Shohei Imamura turns this fact-based story—about the seventy-eight-day killing spree of a remorseless man from a devoutly Catholic family—into a cold, perverse, and at times diabolically funny examination of the primitive coexisting with the modern. More than just a true-crime tale, Vengeance Is Mine bares humanity’s snarling id.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (FilmBox, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Summer is usually a time for fun and games, but some teens get much more danger than they bargained for after beginning to suspect their neighbor is a serial murderer.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Jeffrey Dahmer struggles with a difficult family life as a young boy. During his teenage years he slowly transforms, edging closer to the serial killer he was to become.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp out in a dilapidated building on the estate.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Fandor & Kanopy).

What it's about: Martha Beck, an obese nurse who is desperately lonely, joins a "correspondence club" and finds a romantic pen pal in Ray Fernandez. Martha falls hard for Ray, and is intent on sticking with him even when she discovers he's a con man who seduces lonely single women, kills them and then takes their money. She poses as Ray's sister and joins Ray on a wild killing spree, fueled by her lingering concern that Ray will leave her for one of his marks.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer's country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, ConTV, Shudder & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In the summer of 1979, gay porn producer Anne sets out to film her most ambitious film yet, but her actors are picked off, one by one, by a mysterious killer.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (HereTV, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: A woman helps the police catch the serial killer who murdered her best friend.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Vudu & PlayStation Store).

What it's about: A man imprisons the woman he's still obsessed with after years apart, then finds the tables turned on him.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A frustrated Boston detective searches for the maniac responsible for mutilating a number of university coeds.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Barney Thomson, awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity and his uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in five seconds, as he enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of the serial killer.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A woman with psychic powers has a vision of a murder that took place in a house owned by her husband.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Fandor & Kanopy).

What it's about: Strippers in Manhattan are being stalked and murdered by a psycho. A hard-nosed police detective and a conflicted ex-boxer-turned-private-eye, hired by the strip club owners, set out to find him before he strikes again.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Shout Factory TV & Tubi TV), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (Google Play, Microsoft & YouTube).

What it's about: In 1974, Terry commits a murder and pins it on his twin brother, Todd. Ten years later, Todd escapes from a mental institution on the same day as Terry’s murderous instincts resurface.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Between 1978 and 1979, the inhabitants of the Oise are in fear of a maniac who kills several hitchhikers and escape the police. He was then dubbed "the killer of the Oise" is actually a shy young policeman who will investigate his own murder, only to lose control of the situation.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A researcher investigating a notorious serial killer who was hanged 20 years earlier seemingly becomes possessed by the long dead strangler.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: A pseudo-documentary edited from the home movies of serial killers Wayne & Andrea Montgomery, presenting a look into their quiet, suburban lives...as well as the graphic & disturbing details of their horrific crimes.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi TV) & stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).

What it's about: A sprawling, psychedelic ensemble piece that follows several serial killers over the course of a single night.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Lee Hyun-min, who works reconstructing faces from skull, quits his work in a institute to stay with his Beta-allergic daughter Jin that was submitted to a transplant of heart by the specialist Dr. Yoon. The newcomer researcher to the institute Jung Sun-young comes to his house bringing the skull of a victim of a serial-killer that had her whole body melted down with acid by the murderer. Hyun-min refuses the assignment, but he is haunted by the ghost of the victim and scared he decides to reconstruct the face of the woman. When Jin has trouble with the transplanted heart, Hyun-min requests the donor case history to Dr. Yoon, but the doctor refuses to give the information, claiming confidentiality issue. Dr. Yoon becomes the prime suspect of Detective Suh, who is in charge of the investigation of the murder cases, and he discloses the identity of the victim based on the reconstructed face...

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).

What it's about: A police officer makes a terrible discovery during the investigation of a series of murders: Each victim has a transplanted organ from the same man.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).