Chilling movies on serial killers

Actors: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam

Alfred Hitchcock's landmark masterpiece of the macabre stars Anthony Perkins as the troubled Norman Bates, whose old dark house and adjoining motel are not the place to spend a quiet evening. No one knows that better than Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), the ill-fated traveler whose journey ends in the notorious "shower scene." As first a private detective, then Marion's sister (Vera Miles) searches for her, the horror and the suspense mount to a terrifying climax where the mysterious killer is finally revealed.

Actors: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn

Clarice Starling, a gutsy FBI trainee haunted by her past, risks her life in an attempt to save a missing woman from certain death. The desperate, deadly search for a killer makes Clarice confront her deepest fears as she must confront and befriend convicted psychopathic serial killer Dr. Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lechter, a monstrous brilliant psychiatrist, who can lead her to the murderer.

Actors: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces his release. As the police pursue multiple leads and pressure mounts, knowing his child's life is at stake the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family? Led by Oscar® nominees Jackman and Gyllenhaal, this dramatic thriller features an all-star cast, including Oscar® nominees Viola Davis and Terrence Howard, Golden Globe Award nominee Maria Bello, Academy Award® winner Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano.

Actors: Annette Bening, Robert Downey Jr.

Claire Cooper (Annette Bening), has been having psychic visions all of her life, though she's never been clear of what they mean. Now an adult, she lives an idyllic, small-town life in a Massachusetts farmhouse with her airline-pilot husband Paul (Aidan Quinn) and her young daughter Rebecca (Katie Sagona), while Claire illustrates children's books. A psychopath (Robert Downey Jr.) has been kidnapping young girls in their area, and one is currently missing. Claire has a recurring dream about the killer walking with a girl through an apple orchard. Paul tells police detective Jack Kay (Paul Guilfoyle), who doesn't believe him, as the girl's body had been found at the bottom of the lake. Claire's vision was actually a premonition, starting a chain of events that would create a two-way link to the killer. The key to the mystery is the lake itself, of which Claire dreams, created when the old town of Northfield was flooded to make a reservoir. As her psychiatrist Dr. Silverman (Stephen Rea) does not understand her now waking dreams, Claire alone must now lose herself to the visions. She must relive the killer's memories to find his identity and location.

Actors: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham

Based on a popular graphic novel, From Hell puts an intense psychological spin on the horrific legend of Jack the Ripper and unravels a chilling alleged conspiracy involving the highest powers in England. Jack the Ripper committed five heinous, ritualistic murders during a ten-week span in London in the fall of 1888, creating a frenzied atmosphere of gossip, rumor and terror. Jack the Ripper was never caught; he remains the most notorious and enigmatic serial killer in history.

Actors: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow

When city police find a murder victim who was somehow forced to die of overeating, it puts veteran Detective William Sommerset and his new, talented but still green partner, Detective David Mills, on a desperate hunt for a serial killer who is making statements by staging his victims as tableaus of the Seven Deadly Sins. The first corpse found was "Gluttony," and soon the detectives find more: a lawyer killed because of his Greed; an insurance scammer killed for his Sloth; a fashion model killed for her Pride. Each murder scene is elaborately planned, the victims chosen specifically because of who they are, and posed methodically in death. With time running out for the last two possible victims -- Envy and Wrath -- can Sommerset and Mills get ahead of the killer before his final two acts come to deadly fruition? Starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow and R. Lee Ermey. Directed by Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominee David Fincher.

Actors: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Bill Pullman

Based on the novel by legendary pulp writer Jim Thompson, THE KILLER INSIDE ME tells the story of Lou Ford, a handsome, charming and unassuming small town sheriff's deputy who is in fact a sadist, a psychopath, and a killer.

Actors: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore

Consider Mr. Brooks. A successful businessman, a generous philanthropist, a loving father and devoted husband. Seemingly, he's perfect. But Mr. Brooks has a secret -- he is an insatiable serial killer, so lethally clever that no one has ever suspected him -- until now. Academy Award winner Kevin Costner stars as Earl Brooks, a man who has managed to keep his two incompatible worlds from intersecting by controlling his cunning, wicked alter ego Marshall (Academy Award winner William Hurt) whom he blames for his wrongdoings. But now, as Mr. Brooks succumbs to one last murderous urge, an amateur photographer (Dane Cook) witnesses the crime. Suddenly Brooks finds himself entangled in the dark agenda of an opportunistic bystander, as well as hunted by the unorthodox and tenacious detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore). Can Mr. Brooks outsmart his adversaries and conceal his shocking double life from his wife (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter (Danielle Panabaker) or will someone expose his crimes and his identity once and for all in this unpredictable and electrifying new thriller.

Actors: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman

An obsessive French perfumer with a highly developed olfactory sense and an all-consuming drive to capture the essence of love eventually resorts to murder in his unrepentant quest to find the key ingredient for his recipe in director Tom Tykwer's adaptation of author Patrick Suskind's best-selling 1985 novel. Born in a fetid fish market and raised in a dilapidated orphanage, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) toiled his childhood away in a rank tannery run by the thuggish Grimal (Sam Douglas). Subsequently obsessed by smell, Grenouille's keen olfactory sense becomes so finely tuned that it eventually overpowers such human qualities as love and compassion. Though he has indeed discovered the unmistakable scent of a woman, Grenouille finds it impossible to connect with the fairer sex on any sort of meaningful level. Roaming the streets of Paris late one night, Grenouille catches the scent of a young girl selling plums and impulsively strangles her, later sniffing her nude corpse in a twisted attempt to preserve the distinctive scent in his memory. After persuading legendary perfumer Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) to take him on as an apprentice, Grenouille travels to the town of Grasse in Southern France in order to learn the art of enfleurage at a firm run by the highly respected Mme. Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch). It is there that Grenouille becomes dangerously drawn to the vestal aroma of the young and beautiful Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood), the daughter of widower merchant Antione Richis (Alan Rickman). Soon driven to madness by such a pure scent, the spellbound Grenouille continues to claim the lives of the numerous young girls in a tragic attempt to bottle the impossibly elusive smell of virginal womanhood.

Actors: Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson

A suspenseful, classic thriller, in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock, starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, that will keep you on the edge of your seat and your heart pounding! When David (Luke Wilson) and Amy Fox's (Kate Beckinsale) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to spend the night at the only motel around, with only the TV to entertain them... until they discover that the low-budget slasher videos they find in their room were all filmed in the very room they're sitting in. With hidden cameras now aimed at them... trapping them in rooms, crawlspaces, underground tunnels... and filming their every move, David and Amy must struggle to get out alive before whomever is watching them can finish their latest masterpiece.

Actors: C. Thomas Howell, Rutger Hauer

A road trip takes a deadly turn in this terrifying thriller about a young couple (Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton) tormented by a psychotic hitchhiker (Sean Bean) who forces them to face their fears head-on. The open road becomes a battleground of blood and metal in the race to reveal the chilling truth about this relentless killer. No one knows who he is, what he's after, or how to stop this "truly twisted villain". Watch the madness unfold with intense, edge-of-your-seat chase sequences drive this sinister film to a deadly ending you won't soon forget!

Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz

Based on the best selling book by Alice Sebold, "The Lovely Bones" is the story of a 14-year-old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbor. She tells the story from Heaven, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed all while attempting to get someone to find her lost body.

Actors: Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Stephen Lang

From the legendary Stephen King, author of MISERY and THE SHINING, comes this years most terrifying thriller. With a serial killer on the loose and a stranger stalking her family, a dedicated wife unveils a sinister secret about her husband that threatens their marriage – and lives.

Actors: Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Carrie-Anne Moss

An FBI agent, investigating the case of a murdered serial killer, finds himself on the trail of an avenging former agent who has dedicated himself to hunting down serial killers. He begins to suspect that the man is now after the biggest fish, a "suspect zero" responsible for hundreds of murders.

Actors: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman, Vincent Cassel

After a friend's son is found dead, Soviet secret-police officer Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) suspects his superiors are covering up the truth. When Leo dares to raise questions, he is demoted and exiled to a provincial outpost with his wife (Noomi Rapace). There, Leo soon discovers other mysterious deaths with similar circumstances and convinces his new boss (Gary Oldman) that a deranged serial killer is on the loose—and must be stopped before he strikes again in this electrifying thriller.

Actors: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens

Inspired by the incredible true story, an Alaskan State Trooper (Nicolas Cage) must partner with a near victim and the only witness to escape the clutches of the serial killer in order to bring the murderer to justice.

Actors: James Caviezel, Claudia Karvan

Hoping to put the spark back into their relationship, Peter (Jim Caviezel) and Marcia take a camping trip that quickly turns a fight for their marriage into a horrific battle for their lives. They unknowingly stumble onto an untouched beach that doesn’t take kindly to human intruders. Shocking and terrifying, Nature's Grave is a disturbing glimpse of Mother Nature's dark side.

Actors: Andy Garcia, Lance Henriksen, Uma Thurman

They are the unidentified victims of an unsolved death spree, women linked by a killer's gruesome handiwork…and by police files giving them the code name "Jennifer." Homicide investigator John Berlin believes he's made a breakthrough in the case when he uncovers a key witness: a young blind woman named Helena. Yet who can rely on the testimony of a witness who cannot see? Who can trust Berlin when he is ultimately suspected of the murders? And who can keep vulnerable Helena from becoming the next Jennifer? Andy Garcia (Hero) portrays Berlin and Uma Thurman (Final Analysis) is Helena in this tightly coiled mystery costarring John Malkovich, Lance Henriksen and Kathy Baker. With top stars, top suspense and a surprise ending, it's no surprise "Jennifer 8 is a 10!" (Bill Diehl, ABC Radio Network).

Actors: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson

Fashionable Manhattan therapist Dr. Robert Elliott (Caine) faces the most terrifying moment of his life when a psychotic killer begins attacking the women in his life (Dickinson, Allen) with a straight razor stolen from his office. Desperate to find the murderer before anyone else is hurt, Elliott is soon drawn into a dark and disturbing world of chilling desires. And as the doctor edges closer to the terrible truth, he finds himself lost in a provocative and deadly maze of obsession, deviance and deceit where the most harmless erotic fantasies can become the most deadly sexual nightmares!

Actors: Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, Chris Hemsworth

6 strangers. 2 killers. No getting away… Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez star in this shocking Unrated version of the gripping suspense thriller from director David Twohy about an island vacation that turns deadly. Honeymooners Cliff (Zahn) and Cydney (Jovovich) are hiking a jungle trail to a remote Hawaiian beach when they hear that police have uncovered a grisly murder scene and the suspected killers are somewhere nearby. Unsure whether to stay or flee, the pair joins two other couples when things start to go horribly wrong. Far from civilization, a brutal battle for survival begins where danger lurks along every twist of the path and no one is who they seem.