Best Serial Killer Movies on Netflix Right Now

Updated: September 2026

The best serial killer movies on Netflix range from true-crime dramas and detective investigations to psychological thrillers, horror films and cat-and-mouse stories where the killer may be hiding behind an ordinary job, respectable appearance or position of authority.

Serial killer cinema has always occupied one of the darkest corners of the thriller genre because these crimes are rarely random from the killer’s perspective. There is usually a pattern, ritual, compulsion or method that investigators must understand before they can stop the next murder. Netflix UK currently has a varied selection, including The Good Nurse, Woman of the Hour, The Whisper Man, The Frozen Ground, Luther: The Fallen Sun and a substantial selection of true-crime documentaries. See also our best crime thrillers on Netflix and best thriller movies on Netflix guides.

Quick Picks: Best Serial Killer Movies on Netflix

• Best serial killer movie overall: The Good Nurse (2022)
• Best new serial killer thriller: The Whisper Man (2026)
• Best true-crime serial killer movie: Woman of the Hour (2024)
• Best detective hunting a serial killer: The Frozen Ground (2013)
• Best serial killer action thriller: Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023)
• Best movie about a famous real serial killer: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
• Best psychological serial killer movie: STEPHEN (2025)
• Best serial killer survival thriller: Don’t Move (2024)
• Best missing-person serial killer movie: Lost Girls (2020)
• Best serial killer mystery: The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
• Best female serial killer story: In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
• Best international serial killer thriller: The Perfumier (2022)
• Best hidden gem: Unknown Origins (2020)
• Best serial killer movie to watch tonight: Woman of the Hour (2024)

Jump to: Best Serial Killer Movies · True-Crime Killers · Killers Hiding in Plain Sight · Serial Killer Horror · International Movies · Documentaries · Like Mindhunter & Se7en · What to Watch Tonight · Watch Blood Star

The Best Serial Killer Movies on Netflix Right Now

1. The Good Nurse (2022)

The Good Nurse is our choice for the best serial killer movie on Netflix because it approaches one of the most disturbing true-crime cases imaginable without turning the killer into a glamorous movie monster. Jessica Chastain plays Amy Loughren, an exhausted ICU nurse who befriends new colleague Charles Cullen, played by Eddie Redmayne.

Cullen never behaves like the theatrical psychopath audiences have been trained to recognise. He appears normal, working inside a profession built around trust and care — and that ordinary surface is exactly what makes him frightening.

Year: 2022
Director: Tobias Lindholm
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Nnamdi Asomugha, Noah Emmerich
Genre: True-crime thriller / serial killer investigation
Why watch it: A restrained and deeply unsettling true story about a killer able to hide inside one of society’s most trusted professions.

2. Woman of the Hour (2024)

Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut tells one of those true stories that would sound implausible if somebody had invented it. Daniel Zovatto plays Rodney Alcala, a prolific serial killer who appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game while actively committing crimes.

Kendrick shifts attention towards the women who encounter Alcala, preventing the murderer from becoming the most fascinating person in his own story.

Year: 2024
Director: Anna Kendrick
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Tony Hale, Nicolette Robinson
Genre: True-crime serial killer thriller
Why watch it: A chilling true story that concentrates on the women encountering a killer rather than turning the murderer himself into an icon.

3. The Whisper Man (2026)

The Whisper Man adapts Alex North’s bestselling novel into a dark story about child disappearance and the terrifying possibility that an old serial killer case may have returned in a new form. Adam Scott plays a widowed father whose son disappears; Robert De Niro plays his estranged father, a retired detective.

The murderer connected to the earlier crimes has already been caught — so why does a new disappearance appear to follow the same pattern?

Year: 2026
Director: James Ashcroft
Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Monaghan, Adam Scott, Hamish Linklater
Genre: Serial killer mystery / missing-child thriller
Why watch it: A major new Netflix crime thriller combining a vanished child, an imprisoned serial killer and an investigation haunted by an earlier case.

4. The Frozen Ground (2013)

The Frozen Ground is based on the real hunt for Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen. Nicolas Cage plays a fictionalised investigator; John Cusack plays Hansen, an outwardly respectable business owner; Vanessa Hudgens plays a teenager who escaped him and becomes crucial to the case.

The audience already knows who the killer is — the suspense lies in proving it, and in getting investigators to finally believe the woman who escaped him.

Year: 2013
Director: Scott Walker
Cast: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens, Dean Norris
Genre: True-crime serial killer thriller / police procedural
Why watch it: A solid real-life manhunt in which catching the killer depends on authorities finally believing the woman who escaped him.

5. Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023)

Idris Elba returns as detective John Luther in a feature-length continuation of the BBC crime series. Luther begins disgraced and imprisoned while Andy Serkis’ David Robey, a wealthy cybercriminal, terrorises London by constructing situations built around humiliation and psychological terror.

Luther’s obsessive relationship with violent criminals has always made him effective as a detective and dangerous to himself.

Year: 2023
Director: Jamie Payne
Cast: Idris Elba, Cynthia Erivo, Andy Serkis, Dermot Crowley
Genre: Serial killer action thriller / detective movie
Why watch it: A dark, large-scale serial killer hunt powered by Idris Elba and an enjoyably grotesque Andy Serkis villain.

6. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

Joe Berlinger’s film examines Ted Bundy from the perspective of people who struggled to reconcile the charming man they knew with the reality of his crimes. Zac Efron plays Bundy; Lily Collins plays Elizabeth Kendall, the woman who maintained a relationship with him.

Bundy became notorious partly because his appearance contradicted the cultural image many people held of a serial killer — articulate, educated, attractive and socially confident.

Year: 2019
Director: Joe Berlinger
Cast: Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Kaya Scodelario, John Malkovich
Genre: True-crime serial killer drama / courtroom crime film
Why watch it: A disturbing examination of Ted Bundy’s ability to use charm, appearance and public performance as camouflage.

7. Lost Girls (2020)

Lost Girls approaches serial murder from the perspective of a mother trying to force authorities to take her missing daughter seriously. Amy Ryan plays Mari Gilbert, whose search on Long Island exposes multiple unsolved murders involving young women.

Director Liz Garbus keeps attention on families and institutional failures rather than an unknown killer, examining assumptions made about victims because of their professions or circumstances.

Year: 2020
Director: Liz Garbus
Cast: Amy Ryan, Gabriel Byrne, Thomasin McKenzie, Lola Kirke
Genre: True-crime serial killer investigation / missing-person drama
Why watch it: A victim-centred true-crime film about the families who forced authorities to confront a string of unsolved murders.

8. Don’t Move (2024)

Don’t Move strips the serial killer movie down to a direct predator-and-prey scenario. Kelsey Asbille plays a grieving woman injected with a paralytic drug by a stranger in an isolated forest, with a limited period before her body stops responding.

Most serial killer thrillers revolve around investigators reconstructing earlier crimes. Don’t Move instead places the audience directly beside the person who may become the killer’s next victim.

Year: 2024
Directors: Brian Netto and Adam Schindler
Cast: Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock, Moray Treadwell, Daniel Francis
Genre: Serial killer survival thriller / cat-and-mouse movie
Why watch it: A stripped-back survival thriller where the victim is progressively losing physical control while the killer gets closer.

9. In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

In the Shadow of the Moon begins like a serial killer police procedural before moving into science-fiction territory. Boyd Holbrook plays a Philadelphia officer who encounters a mysterious female killer whose crimes recur across decades — without her seeming to age.

The investigation gradually consumes the detective’s life as obsession becomes almost as important as the murders themselves.

Year: 2019
Director: Jim Mickle
Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Michael C. Hall, Cleopatra Coleman, Bokeem Woodbine
Genre: Serial killer thriller / science-fiction mystery
Why watch it: A detective thriller that begins in familiar territory before turning its serial killer mystery into something far stranger.

10. The Perfumier (2022)

German thriller The Perfumier centres its story on scent, obsession and murder. Emilia Schüle plays a detective who has lost her sense of smell and becomes involved with a perfumer whose attempts to create an extraordinary scent depend on increasingly disturbing methods.

Instead of simply chasing the murderer, the investigator is drawn towards the same talent that makes him dangerous.

Year: 2022
Director: Nils Willbrandt
Cast: Emilia Schüle, Ludwig Simon, Robert Finster, August Diehl
Genre: Psychological serial killer thriller / international crime film
Why watch it: A distinctive German killer thriller built around scent, obsession and a detective drawn dangerously close to the person she is investigating.

11. STEPHEN (2025)

Tamil psychological thriller STEPHEN begins with an unusual reversal: nine girls have disappeared, and a man confesses. Instead of forcing a reluctant murderer to reveal the truth, a psychiatrist begins questioning whether the confession can actually be trusted.

Is Stephen genuinely guilty? Is he manipulating the psychiatrist? Or is somebody manipulating him?

Year: 2025
Director: Mithun
Cast: Gomathi Shankar, Michael Thangadurai, Smruthi Venkat
Genre: Psychological serial killer thriller / Indian mystery
Why watch it: A clever reversal of the serial killer procedural, beginning with a confession that makes the mystery harder rather than easier.

12. The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye combines gothic murder mystery with a fictionalised young Edgar Allan Poe. Christian Bale plays retired detective Augustus Landor, investigating a ritualistic murder at West Point in 1830 alongside cadet Poe, played by Harry Melling.

Snow, darkness and the isolated military academy give the story an appropriately morbid atmosphere.

Year: 2022
Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Toby Jones
Genre: Gothic murder mystery / serial-murder thriller
Why watch it: A beautifully atmospheric period murder mystery pairing Christian Bale with a fictional young Edgar Allan Poe.

13. Unknown Origins (2020)

Spanish thriller Unknown Origins gives the serial killer investigation an unusual comic-book angle. Javier Rey plays a detective investigating murders that recreate superhero origin stories, requiring help from someone who understands comic-book mythology.

The tone is much lighter and stranger than The Good Nurse or The Frozen Ground, but the underlying detective mechanics are surprisingly traditional.

Year: 2020
Director: David Galán Galindo
Cast: Javier Rey, Verónica Echegui, Brays Efe, Antonio Resines
Genre: Serial killer mystery / Spanish crime thriller
Why watch it: A quirky and unusually entertaining serial killer investigation built around comic-book mythology.

14. Mrs. Serial Killer (2020)

Indian thriller Mrs. Serial Killer begins when a respected doctor is accused of murdering several women and his wife believes he has been framed. Her extraordinary solution: stage a copycat murder while he is incarcerated to prove somebody else is responsible.

The premise pushes the serial killer thriller towards dark melodrama, twist-driven and deliberately heightened.

Year: 2020
Director: Shirish Kunder
Cast: Jacqueline Fernandez, Manoj Bajpayee, Mohit Raina, Zayn Marie Khan
Genre: Serial killer thriller / Indian crime mystery
Why watch it: A pulpy serial killer story built around the extraordinary idea of staging a murder to prove someone else innocent.

15. Time Cut (2024)

Time Cut mixes teenage slasher horror with time travel. Madison Bailey plays a teenager who accidentally travels back to 2003, shortly before her sister is murdered by a masked killer — possessing knowledge most victims in serial killer movies never have.

The problem is that changing the past may alter the future she came from.

Year: 2024
Director: Hannah Macpherson
Cast: Madison Bailey, Antonia Gentry, Michael Shanks, Griffin Gluck
Genre: Serial killer horror / time-travel slasher
Why watch it: An entertaining mixture of masked-killer movie and time-travel mystery.

16. There’s Someone Inside Your House (2021)

This Netflix slasher follows students at a Nebraska high school targeted by a masked killer whose method involves exposing victims’ secrets before attacking them. Fear spreads not simply around who will die next but around what hidden information may be revealed.

The killer effectively weaponises shame as well as violence.

Year: 2021
Director: Patrick Brice
Cast: Sydney Park, Théodore Pellerin, Asjha Cooper, Dale Whibley
Genre: Teen slasher / serial killer horror
Why watch it: A modern masked-killer movie where exposing the victim’s secrets becomes part of the murderer’s ritual.

17. Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers (2025)

Aileen Wuornos remains one of the most famous female serial killers in American criminal history. This documentary examines her through archival material, death-row interviews and accounts of her background, moving beyond the simplified image of the “female serial killer.”

Understanding a killer requires more than reducing them to a headline.

Year: 2025
Director: Emily Turner
Featuring: Aileen Wuornos through archival footage and interviews
Genre: True-crime documentary / female serial killer film
Why watch it: A recent reassessment of one of America’s most notorious female serial killers using rare archival and death-row material.

18. My Father, the BTK Killer (2025)

My Father, the BTK Killer centres on Kerri Rawson, daughter of Dennis Rader, the murderer known as BTK. For years, Rader maintained the outward appearance of an ordinary family man — husband, father, church leader — while responsible for a series of murders.

The disguise was not a fake name or physical mask. It was ordinary domestic life.

Year: 2025
Director: Skye Borgman
Featuring: Kerri Rawson and archival material concerning Dennis Rader
Genre: True-crime documentary / serial killer family story
Why watch it: A deeply personal account of what it means to discover that your own father was one of America’s most notorious serial killers.

19. Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes (2021)

British serial killer Dennis Nilsen narrates much of this documentary through recordings made while in prison. The film places those recordings against testimony, archive and the social environment surrounding his offences, exposing the gap between how a murderer constructs a story about himself and the reality experienced by victims.

Year: 2021
Director: Michael Harte
Featuring: Dennis Nilsen through archival recordings, investigators and journalists
Genre: British true-crime documentary / serial killer documentary
Why watch it: A chilling film built around Nilsen’s own prison recordings while refusing to let his self-image become the only version of the story.

20. Capturing the Killer Nurse (2022)

Viewers who finish The Good Nurse and want the factual investigation behind the drama should watch Capturing the Killer Nurse, which examines how investigators finally proved Charles Cullen had been deliberately killing hospital patients.

The documentary replaces dramatised suspense with the much less comfortable knowledge that the real case was potentially even larger.

Year: 2022
Director: Tim Travers Hawkins
Featuring: Investigators and people involved in exposing Charles Cullen
Genre: True-crime documentary / serial killer investigation
Why watch it: The factual companion to The Good Nurse, explaining how detectives proved Charles Cullen was killing patients.

21. The Women and the Murderer (2021)

French documentary The Women and the Murderer examines the hunt for serial killer Guy Georges, giving particular attention to two women whose persistence became central to the case: a senior police officer and the mother of a victim.

Guy Georges remains central, but the story becomes equally about the people who refused to let the investigation disappear.

Year: 2021
Directors: Mona Achache and Patricia Tourancheau
Featuring: Investigators, victims’ relatives and people connected to the Guy Georges investigation
Genre: French true-crime documentary / serial killer investigation
Why watch it: A victim- and investigator-focused documentary about the women who helped bring a serial killer to justice.

22. How to Catch a Serial Killer (2018)

This British documentary examines detective Steve Fulcher’s pursuit of murderer Christopher Halliwell. The case is remarkable because the method Fulcher used to obtain information eventually caused enormous professional consequences for the detective himself.

That tension between legal procedure and investigative urgency makes the documentary particularly relevant to audiences who enjoy morally complicated police thrillers.

Year: 2018
Director: John Holdsworth
Featuring: Trevor McDonald, Steven Fulcher and people connected to the investigation
Genre: British true-crime documentary / serial killer investigation
Why watch it: A fascinating case where catching a killer and following procedure became two conflicting objectives.

Best True-Crime Serial Killer Movies on Netflix

True-crime serial killer movies work best when they resist the temptation to turn murderers into celebrities. The Good Nurse is the strongest dramatic example because the film is ultimately as interested in Amy Loughren and the hospitals around Charles Cullen as it is in Cullen himself. Woman of the Hour similarly shifts attention towards the women encountering Rodney Alcala.

Best Serial Killer Investigation & Detective vs Killer Movies

Serial killer cinema naturally overlaps with detective movies because repeated crimes produce one essential dramatic question: can investigators understand the pattern before another person dies? The Frozen Ground is the most straightforward police procedural. Luther: The Fallen Sun gives the structure its most heightened version, with Luther and David Robey directly challenging each other.

Best Serial Killer Movies Where the Killer Hides in Plain Sight

One of the most frightening ideas in serial killer cinema is that the murderer does not look frightening at all. The Good Nurse is the clearest example — Charles Cullen works inside hospitals and presents himself as a dependable colleague. My Father, the BTK Killer takes that idea into the family home: Dennis Rader was simultaneously living as a husband, father and community member.

Best Psychological Serial Killer Movies and Profilers

The most interesting serial killer movies often spend less time asking who committed the crimes than asking why the pattern exists. STEPHEN turns confession itself into a psychological puzzle. The Perfumier connects murder to artistic obsession. See our full best psychological thrillers on Netflix guide.

Best Serial Killer Horror Movies and Being Hunted

Some serial killer films move much closer to horror than conventional crime. Don’t Move is effectively a predator survival movie. Time Cut combines serial murder with teen-slasher conventions, and There’s Someone Inside Your House uses a masked killer targeting high-school students. A detective movie asks who the killer is; a serial killer horror film asks whether the next victim can survive.

Best Serial Killer Movies About Obsession, Missing Women and Copycat Killers

In the Shadow of the Moon makes investigator obsession central. Lost Girls and The Frozen Ground both address how disappearances of vulnerable women are frequently ignored or minimised. The Whisper Man works from the fear that a supposedly solved case may never really have been closed at all — every solved crime can potentially become the template for another.

Best Female Serial Killer Movies on Netflix

Female serial killers appear much less frequently in mainstream crime cinema than male killers, which makes Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers particularly relevant. In the Shadow of the Moon provides a fictional counterpart, destabilising familiar genre assumptions about who commits repeated predatory murder.

Best International Serial Killer Movies on Netflix

Netflix’s international catalogue gives the genre much more variety than a Hollywood-only list. STEPHEN offers a Tamil-language psychological mystery, The Perfumier brings German crime cinema into a world of scent and obsession, Unknown Origins creates an eccentric Spanish investigation built around comic-book mythology, and Mrs. Serial Killer takes a heightened Hindi-language approach.

Best British Serial Killer Movies and Documentaries

Luther: The Fallen Sun provides the fictional side of the category. Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes examines one of Britain’s most notorious killers through his own recordings, and How to Catch a Serial Killer looks at the controversial decisions made by detective Steve Fulcher.

Best Serial Killer Documentaries on Netflix

Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes is perhaps the most disturbing because Dennis Nilsen’s own voice becomes part of the film. My Father, the BTK Killer takes a completely different perspective by focusing on Dennis Rader’s daughter, while Capturing the Killer Nurse and The Women and the Murderer concentrate on the investigators who brought killers to justice. The strongest documentaries avoid treating murder as entertainment and concentrate instead on investigation, victims, families and institutional failure.

Best Serial Killer Movies About Authority and Trust

Serial killers become especially frightening when their public identities encourage trust. Charles Cullen is a nurse. Dennis Rader is a father and community figure. Rodney Alcala can appear charming on national television. The threat in these stories comes from the gap between public role and private behaviour — audiences instinctively understand that uniforms, professions and social status affect how behaviour is interpreted.

Serial Killer Movies for Fans of Mindhunter and Se7en

Netflix viewers searching for movies like Mindhunter usually want investigation, behavioural analysis, interviews and killer psychology. The Good Nurse, The Frozen Ground, STEPHEN and The Whisper Man all operate in that broad territory.

Viewers looking for movies like Se7en are usually drawn to dark atmosphere, ritualised murder and the feeling that the killer has designed a game specifically for investigators. Luther: The Fallen Sun offers the most heightened version of that structure on Netflix, while The Pale Blue Eye provides a slower gothic variation and The Perfumier connects killing with an obsessive creative objective.

What Is the Best Serial Killer Movie on Netflix Right Now?

Our first choice is The Good Nurse (2022). If you want something new, watch The Whisper Man. For true crime, choose Woman of the Hour. For a police manhunt, watch The Frozen Ground. For a big dark detective thriller, choose Luther: The Fallen Sun. For a psychological mystery, choose STEPHEN. For survival horror, watch Don’t Move. For a true-crime documentary, watch Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes.

What Serial Killer Movie Should You Watch on Netflix Tonight?

If you want the best overall film, watch The Good Nurse. If you want something based on a real killer, watch Woman of the Hour. If you want something fast and frightening, watch Don’t Move. If you want a psychological mind game, choose STEPHEN. If you want a slasher, choose Time Cut. If you want a documentary, watch Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes.

What Makes a Great Serial Killer Movie?

The best serial killer movies are rarely compelling simply because someone murders multiple people. What matters is the pattern — a killer usually believes their crimes obey some kind of internal logic, and the investigator, victim or audience must gradually understand that logic before the killer acts again. The strongest films also understand that the murderer is only part of the story: victims, investigators, families and institutions matter just as much. The most disturbing question is often not simply why somebody became a killer, but why the people and systems around them failed to recognise what was happening sooner.

Looking for Another Serial Killer Thriller? Watch Blood Star

If you have worked through Netflix’s serial killer movies and want something less familiar, Blood Star approaches the serial-predator story from the victim’s perspective rather than through a police investigation. Bobbi is travelling alone across the American Southwest when she attracts the attention of a small-town sheriff. Gradually, she understands that the person behind the badge is not simply abusing his authority — he is a predator.

That makes the sheriff particularly frightening because his public role operates as camouflage. A driver is expected to stop for him. A civilian is expected to cooperate. He knows the local roads and understands how the systems surrounding his uniform operate. Bobbi does not.

Instead of following detectives reconstructing a sequence of murders after the fact, Blood Star stays close to one potential victim as she begins to understand what kind of person is pursuing her. The result combines the cat-and-mouse structure of a serial killer thriller with corrupt-authority crime cinema, road-movie isolation and desert survival suspense.

Blood Star is not currently on Netflix.

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Film posters via TMDB.

Related guides

• Best Crime Thrillers on Netflix Right Now
• Best Thriller Movies on Netflix Right Now
• Best Psychological Thrillers on Netflix Right Now
• Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now
• Best Movies About Corrupt Cops

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