The Best Serial Killer Movies on The Criterion Channel
Finding a good Serial Killer movie to watch can be hard, so we've ranked the best ones and included where to watch them. Check out our list of the best Serial Killer movies of all time streaming on The Criterion Channel.
1. Zodiac
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 (PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Paramount+ & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video & 4 others).
2. From Hell
What it's about: Frederick Abberline is an opium-huffing inspector from Scotland Yard who falls for one of Jack the Ripper's prostitute targets in this Hughes brothers adaption of a graphic novel that posits the Ripper's true identity.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
3. Funny Games
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 MAX, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (iTunes).
4. M
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 popular subscription service (HBO MAX, The Criterion Channel, Hoopla & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).
5. Vengeance Is Mine
What it's about: A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).
6. The Cat o' Nine Tails
What it's about: A reporter and a blind retired journalist try to solve a series of murders. The crimes are connected to experiments by a pharmaceutical company in secret research. The two end up becoming targets of the killer.
Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, Plex & Vudu), stream on a subscription service (Shudder, The Criterion Channel, Fandor & 3 others) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
7. The Vanishing
What it's about: Rex and Saskia are enjoying a biking holiday in France when, stopping at a gas station, Saskia disappears. Confounded, Rex searches everywhere, but to no avail. Three years later, he's still obsessed with finding her, pleading his case on television, putting up posters and ruining his new relationship in the process. Eventually an unassuming chemistry teacher, Raymond, approaches Rex, intimating that he knows what happened.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (iTunes).
8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
What it's about: Henry likes to kill people, in different ways each time. Henry shares an apartment with Otis. When Otis' sister comes to stay, we see both sides of Henry: "the guy next door" and the serial killer.
Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, Peacock, Plex & 2 others), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
9. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
What it's about: London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bounting family and rents a room…
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).
10. Man Bites Dog
What it's about: The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and arbitrary musings on topics of interest to him, such as music or the conditions of low-income housing, and even goes so far as to introduce the documentary crew to his family. But their reckless indulgences soon get the better of them.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).
11. Arsenic and Old Lace
What it's about: Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
12. Cure
What it's about: A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere...
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).
13. 10 Rillington Place
What it's about: The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
14. The Raven
What it's about: A brilliant but deranged neurosurgeon becomes obsessively fixated on a judge's daughter who in no way wants him. With the help of an escaped criminal whose face he has surgically deformed, the mad man lures her, her father and her fiancé to his isolated castle-like home, where he has created a torture chamber with the intent of torturing them for having 'tortured' him.
Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Peacock) & stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).
15. Angst
What it's about: A killer is released from prison and breaks into a remote home to kill a woman, her handicapped son and her pretty daughter.
Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Shudder, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).
16. The Element of Crime
What it's about: Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).
17. The Honeymoon Killers
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 popular subscription service (HBO MAX, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).
18. Grip of the Strangler
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 stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).